Sleep Just Won't Come
by Brandidy
Summary: Daryl saves Beth from her kidnappers, but neither of them realized that she would continue to need him, especially when the night comes and she needs someone to keep her company! Based off of a prompt in the Bethyl tag on tumblr.
1. Chapter 1-The Reunion

**So, this is based off of a prompt that someone left in the Bethyl tag. If I can remember their url, I will definitely credit them! And if they happen to see this, hi! I hope you like it! Also, this is just the first half. Still working on the second. ;)**

Beth was painfully aware of the hand slithering like a snake up her bare leg. She cringed as she took in her surroundings and the other person in the room, the hand belonging to a man with greasy black hair and whiskey breath. He'd been visiting her a lot lately, and every time he exited, she was left with a bad taste in her mouth. "We got somethin' real special for you today." He said as his eyes crawled tardily over her undressed body.

"Get you hands off of me." Her voice was eerily calm, swimming through the air with grace. The man's eyes shot up to hers, a laugh bursting through his body. He had no mercy when he clamped his fingers down on her thigh, squeezing until Beth felt like her leg had lost circulation. He had a disgusting grin, somehow finding pride in watching the girl squirm in pain.

Then he let go, grabbing something to the side of him. Even without his hand, Beth still felt the pain lingering on her leg. It reminded her of the time that her dad had brought home a man's dog from down the street, hiding it. He did it because Beth had been walking home from school with her friends in seventh grade, when she heard a high pitched yelp. She told them to leave, walking towards the home she suspected was where the noise came from. After some snooping around, she found a man in his back yard, beating his dog with a metal pole.

The second she got home, Beth told her father. Hershel had always been a cool, reasonable man and his daughters rewarded him by always telling him the truth. He had told her to stay put, leaving the house. She sat for hours wondering when he'd be home, if the man found him... When he returned, he had the scarred up dog wrapped in a towel. Handed it to Beth, letting her try and nurse him back to health.

No body knew that the dog would be sensitive to any contact. So, when the dog bit down hard on her thigh, blood dripping down her leg, no one had seen it coming.

She couldn't help but compare the pain to what was happening now as she watched the purple hand prints start to form.

Something was shoved into her lap, and with further inspection, she came to realize that it was a uniform. A dirtied up school girl uniform to be exact. It wasn't anything new. It had become a daily custom for the men to bring her a costume, get her dressed up, make her prance around, do what they want as they watch. Not a day went by that she didn't feel sick with them and herself. Not saying that she didn't fight them, but in the end, she was left fidgeting with her fingers trembling, doing exactly what they had intended the entire time.

"We gotta do it tomorrow, Jesse." A younger man said, throwing Beth's old torn up clothes in her face. "Time to get Leslie in here for the night. This one's gonna sleep." He said, rubbing his rough hands down her face.

Beth jerked away, pulling her shirt over her head, then yanking on her pants. One of them grabbed her, pushing her hands behind her and thrust her towards the open door. They forced her towards the room that was the closest thing to solitude she had gotten since she'd been there. She buckled to the floor as the man kicked her legs out from beneath her, grabbing the chains and hooking them to the metal bracelets she was forced to wear.

They left her there then, and Beth sighed in exhaustion, letting her chin fall to her chest and sleep overtaking her.

–

She awoke barely two hours later. That was more than she usually got in one go, which led Beth to believe that maybe she might possibly be coming to terms with what was going to happen with her life. A life of loneliness and torture.

Thick dark bruises lined her usually pale soft skin, and a dull ache was sitting involuntarily in her head, leaving her breathless and shivering in pain. Her thoughts weren't helping, the smallest things were filling her mind with pictures of days that have passed. People, places, things that she could never have again. Trees outside the small rectangular window brought back the memories of the farm, the bars on the door broke her down further with images of the prison. Judith. Maggie. Daryl.

But, that wasn't nearly as bad as when the other thoughts came. The thoughts that tore at her insides like knives, the thoughts that made her wonder if life was even worth living.

How could it be? Everything was gone. Humanity had fallen, being pushed to the brink of extinction. If anyone survived this, it would be the world starting over again. Maybe the bible wasn't talking about just how the Earth began, maybe it was stating how the Earth would continue. Adam and Eve together, populating the Earth with their children. Perhaps the time had come for a new Adam and Eve.

Beth hunched over her legs, trying to keep out the constant memories that invaded her mind. The ones of the men, snapping at her, tugging at her, striking her. But, nothing seemed to remove them. Her stomach felt sick, and she closed her eyes, yanking at the chains keeping her by the wall. The clanking of the metal had become a sort of lullaby for her, a necessity. If she were left in silence, she'd go insane.

She needed to stay in her right mind in case someone came to save her. Someone had to come, right? Her life couldn't end like this. This kind of thing only happened in movies.

But, the more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed. She had been there for over a month, being tossed around like a damn rag doll. Every day, a man came in right after the sun came up, took her into a room, and allowed the men to tease her and touch her, but so far, that was all that they had done. Then, when it got dark, they sent her back to her room, chained her back up, and left her alone, and then the morning came again, they came back and got her, repeating the same cycle day after day, refusing to let her have even the slightest bit of freedom. It seemed pretty damn real to her.

All hopes for giving herself to a man she loved had flown out the window the second day she was there. That had been the day they brought her out, and a man with little to no teeth and a bald head had grabbed her, trying to touch her through her clothes. She was sure that these men would be forcing themselves upon her completely any day. As of now, she still had hope. Hope that she would be rescued and still be able to find someone that she can have a family with. Not like she had any candidates, but a girl could dream, right?

Coincidentally, directly after that thought, someone popped up in her mind. Not someone she had thought of doing anything sexual with, but someone that she cared about and missed. Maybe, one day, she'd see him again. And when that day came, she would rush into his arms and hug him like no one else existed. Even if he probably wouldn't respond to it, and even if it was a one sided relief.

But, how high was that hope really? Was anyone even looking for her? Someone with mud caked clothes and a rather intimidating crossbow? When Daryl put his mind to something, it'd take an act from God himself to keep him from doing it.

Beth recalled the night she was taken, how her and Daryl were overrun by walkers, and he risked his life to distract them while she ran. She was never going to leave him. Never intended on going farther than the road. But, fate had other plans. Someone snatched her up as she was going to grab a knife from her backpack. Her fingers had dropped it, letting all of her stuff fall on the ground while she was dragged away. Beth had heard him scream for her, but before she could respond, she was hit over the head with a blunt object and a dark void took over her mind. It dawned on her a few days later that he had no way of tracking her. She should have left some sort of clue, something to lead him to her. She clenched her hands and closed her eyes at the thought of him out there looking for her, finding ghost tracks that lead him nowhere.

Sometimes she wondered if he was even alive, worried herself sick thinking about it. The pain it left her with made her current situation look like child's play. Beth was insignificant in her mind, it was the other people that mattered. Daryl held so much more importance than she did and she was okay with it. He just had to be alive...

Then she put her worries to ease when she recalled that if anyone in this filthy world was capable of living, it was Daryl Dixon. He was literally the epitome of how you should live your life in the apocalypse. Emotionless, without any true connections, strong, capable. But, that wasn't entirely true, was it? Daryl cared. He cared about Judith, you could see that in a second. He cared about Carol and everyone knew it. Beth couldn't blame him, she cared for her too, in a different way of course.

Somewhere, somehow, he even cared about Beth. She had been completely oblivious to it until that look he gave her.

_"What changed your mind?"_

It was the question that had gone unanswered. The question that peaked her interest often, always ending with her over analyzing everything they had been through together. But, the look he had given her after she asked spoke so many answers, so many emotions. She wasn't sure if he had simply related to her, which seemed to be the likely choice, or that he actually cared for her. She knew that to him, she was just some girl who was overly optimistic. A girl who would never be able to make it on her own because she was too weak.

If he saw her now, Beth wondered what he would think. Would he pity her? Save her? Despise her? These men hadn't exactly deflowered her, but they had come close plenty of times. Would Daryl hate her now if he knew that filthy hands had been all over her body? The thought of him thinking negatively of her at all made her curl further into a ball, unable to sustain the pain in her heart.

The door sprung open, a man she now knew as Mark walking in with her daily plate of food. "There's the little bitch." He said with a grimy smile, revealing his yellow teeth and specks of dip that stayed day after day as if his mouth was a hotel. "Bill decided tomorrow's the day for you, little girl."

Beth attempted to give him a deadly glare, but found that she was too scared to muster one. "The day for what?"

He walked forward, tossing the plate on the ground, letting the mush slosh out. It fell all over the floor in front of her and Beth didn't realize how hungry she was until her stomach began to growl loudly.

His hands trailed up her front, landing on her chest. She looked away, the feeling of some man groping her was becoming unbearable. "The day for you to lose that pointless virginity." Bile rose in her throat. She knew the day was coming, but to know that it had been scheduled and talked about when she wasn't around made it somehow worse. She wasn't sure she'd ever be able to trust a stranger again. Never wanted to be in a large group again, that's for certain. "Or, maybe we can just... Get rid of it now." He said, scooting in closer.

Before Beth knew what she was doing, she threw her head forward, smacking into his nose and causing it to make a disgusting cracking noise. Blood spewed out, running down into his mouth. "Fuck!" The man yelled, grabbing at his nose. He barely gave Beth a glance before lifting his hands, striking out at her face. Her head was throbbing, vertigo coming in full force when he kicked his leg out, it slamming into Beth's stomach.

The pain was excruciating to the point that Beth wasn't completely sure she was going to survive, but if she died, she sure as hell hoped that this guy was near her so she could rip his throat out when she came back. Beth coughed in an attempt to get her breath, but the man had her by her hair and yanked in a quick fashion, not giving a damn that her neck felt like a bent twig, ready to snap at any moment. "I'm gonna enjoy watching you writhe and beg for him to stop." He said, then shoved her back. He kicked the tray with her food, causing it to slide to the other side of the room and slam against the wall. "I hope you starve." He said, then shut the door, the impact ringing throughout her ears.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow was the day they finally decided to stop 'taking it easy' on her, even if what they think is easy is what will be fueling her nightmares for the rest of her life.

Yet, she couldn't stop smiling. It had been the first time she stood up for herself in here. Truthfully, that was probably the only way she'd survive. No one was coming. If Daryl hadn't come yet, he wasn't coming at all. She felt terrible for relying solely on the very man that she heard had wore zombie ears on a necklace, whose brother had attempted to make a move on her before she was legal, who was so incredibly infuriating in every sense, but that was because she knew he was alive. Who knew if Maggie, or Glenn, or any of them were still breathing? She had slowly began to come to terms with Maggie being gone, but not once did she settle for thinking Daryl was, even if she sometimes had doubts.

Sometimes she prayed for Daryl and the others, hoping God would respond somehow. It wasn't like he had too many prayers to listen to these days anyway. How he could sit up there and allow all of this to happen was beyond her, literally. But, he must have a reason. Maybe God just finally gave up on humanity. All of the drugs, hatred, war. Humanity's been killing each other, their selves, and maybe God just finally sat down and said, 'I'm gonna end this.'

A sudden scream could be heard in the distance, and she sent a prayer up once more for whoever it was. Whoever they were torturing now out of the half a dozen girls they had pent up in there. She was in constant emotional turmoil to just have to sit idly by and wait for them to kill or rape someone.

She wasn't the only girl that had been in there, but the men liked to tell her she was their favorite, much to her disdain. She would gladly trade it for basically anything in the world, yet she preferred it to be her than anyone else. No one deserved to be put through what they did to her and especially not the other girls that were in there. Some of them were maybe twelve years old, probably less.

It was when a gunshot rang out, followed by many more that Beth became frightened. What if they were under a raid? If these men could do what they did to Beth, than anyone could. There was no safety, no one capable of being trusted. This world changed good human beings into horrible creatures capable of very inhumane things.

Beth crouched against the wall, trying to not be too noticeable in case someone decided to walk in. More shots echoed, and Beth shifted in her stance. They were coming closer. Someone begin yelling in the distance, but this time it was a man. Beth couldn't make out what he was saying, but she heard men responding with insults.

It sounded like a war was going on out there.

"Where is she?"

Beth's eyes shot open. She knew that voice. It haunted her dreams every night, whispering hope and promises that couldn't be kept. Was this even real? She needed to get a grip. The worst thing that could happen now was for her to fall to pieces. But, the voice called out again, this time using her name.

"I know you got her! Where is Beth?" The heavily southern voice yelled, making Beth's pulse race in anticipation.

"I'm in here!" She screamed, her voice scratchy, but she didn't care. She lifted her arms, clanking the metal against the wall so that she could be found more easily. "Daryl!" She screamed when he didn't respond. One more shot could be heard, then, everything had gone quiet. Too quiet. She had absolutely no idea who had won the attack. "Daryl?!" She yelled as she slumped back against the wall.

_You're gonna be the last man standing, you are._

She hoped to God she was right.

The door slowly opened, a body falling through and falling unceremoniously to the floor. She didn't know the person and shrunk back into the darkness. They were coming for her. The men had won, and they were coming to show her the deaths that she had caused. Came to tell her she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. As her mind went into overdrive and she was planning to mourn for who she knew had to of died, she noticed something peculiar. An arrow sticking out from the man's chest. Yellow arrows that she easily could recognize.

Beth saw the tip of a crossbow, then a face. Daryl's head shown through, eyes worn out and hair even more shaggy then the last time she had saw him, but she couldn't imagine anyone that she'd be more happy to see.

When his wild gaze met hers, his feet could take him no further. Everything she had been afraid of dropped, falling on the floor and rolling away. He came. He actually came.

Daryl slowly walked in, his steps creating loud thumps. Blood covered him from head to toe, new blood, not walker blood. His Horton slipped from his fingers, slamming onto the floor as he took one more step, dropping onto his knees in front of her. "Beth?" He asked as if he wasn't quite sure it was really her, her name falling off of his tongue like a prayer.

Tears stung her wide eyes as she looked at his face, filled with so much worry and relief. He did care.

"I been lookin' for you for months." He said in a broken tone, his hands lifting up to touch her face, but stopped just short of reaching her. He took a deep breath, looking at her with hesitation and fear. Fear that she wasn't really there. Fear that she had died, just like Sophia. Just like Merle. Then his skin touched hers, his eyes shut and he let out a small laugh. "Can't believe I actually found you." Beth sighed in contentment, a tear rolling down her battered up face.

She knew that all of his relief was coming from how he had finally found someone he was looking for before they were killed, not because it was Beth. She wasn't going to allow herself to be fooled, thinking it was something it wasn't.

"I could say the same." She said and despite knowing he didn't feel the same, she yearned to have him just hold her, telling her that everything would get better from here and he'd never leave her sight, but he was more focused on the blood and cuts and bruises. Besides, she knew he would never do that. That wasn't the kind of person Daryl was.

"This from them guys?" He inquired about the cut above her lip as he moved his hand away, suddenly feeling awkward, unknowingly fueling Beth's opinion of how he felt for her. He couldn't help it, though. He had never been a person to show physical affection.

Beth looked down, her eyes avoiding him at all cost. She was ashamed, even if none of it was her fault.

He noticed her torn clothes and how she was holding her legs near her, keeping them closed tightly. Some bad things happened to her here. He'd never seen the girl look so damaged, and he was sure as hell hoping it didn't last. She was always bright and happy, even with the world falling to shit around her. It was one of the things that drew him to her.

Fear was dripping off of her like sweat, but it had nothing to do with where she was. She feared what he thought about her now that he knew. Sad that the world that she used to know is gone, yet she still is living her life for someone else. Still wanting someone elses approval. "Don't ask questions you already know the answer to, Daryl." Beth breathed out, shaking her head. "Please." Daryl took a step back, yanking up his Horton as he went. He angrily wiped off his face, seething at the fact that someone had hurt her, but even more so that he couldn't protect her. If he couldn't protect people, what use was he in this world? Protecting others was the only thing he had ever been good at.

He took another look at her, seeing some blood on her forehead and shirt. His eyes fell away, and Beth realized what he had been looking at.

"The blood isn't mine." She said with a laugh, but it never reached her eyes.

Daryl didn't seem amused, but couldn't fight a small smirk that appeared on his lips. "Good girl." He told her with pride and Beth's cheeks were powdered red in the attention.

He stepped back towards her when he realized he had never got her out of the chains, sitting down his weapons after hesitation, reaching into his pocket to grab the little metal key that he had taken off of one of the bodies, and finally began unlocking Beth from her shackles. It wasn't until the metal left her wrist that she realized that she hadn't been truly independent since she got there. As soon as she was free, she fell, barely holding herself up. Daryl rapidly bent down to assist her, but was completely taken aback as she launched forward, not wasting a moment to wrap her arms around him. Her face buried in his chest and her hands clung onto his torn up shirt for dear life. Daryl's arms hung by his side as her fingers dug into his back in a brutal embrace, just like she had done twice before. Once in the prison, and once when he was blubbering like a fucking baby. He had never been so embarrassed in his life, crying in front of some girl. But, at that time, that's all she was.

Now, he didn't know what the hell she was to him. Something changed for both of them after that hug. When he told her how he felt about Hershel's death, blaming himself. They bonded without either of them even realizing. She saw the worst part of him when he was drunk, forcing a bow into her hands, and somehow, she didn't run. Beth stayed, talking to him, _hugging _him, burning down a house with him. How was he not supposed to feel something for her now after everything they went through together?

No one else touched Daryl because everyone else knew that he wouldn't reciprocate, but not Beth. She held out hope that one day he would return the favor, and if he hadn't just spent the last month searching for her in every house he found, driving slowly to see if she had been tossed into a ditch, looking each walker over carefully to make sure they didn't have her face, then maybe he wouldn't have lifted his trembling arms. Maybe he would have wrapped his hands around her, crushing her in a hug that made her ache and smile at once.

"I hoped you'd come." Beth said.

His hands went into her hair, pulling her even more into him. Her floral scent filled his nostrils, and he relished in finally remembering what it felt like to be complacent. The time without her felt like years. He didn't know what had happened to her, just knew that somewhere out there she was waiting, afraid and alone. It ripped his heart out every night thinking up all the possibilities of what could be happening to her. He gripped her even tighter, not wanting to let her go.

The only reason he came by her tonight was because he found the black car with a cross on the back in a small town. He knew instantly what car it was, the image of Beth's bag laying behind it in the dirt burned into his memory like a brand. So, as much as he wanted to get in and kill the assholes who were driving it, he kept some control and hid in the shadows, then he followed it back.

"Did you find-" Glenn asked walking in, but his voice stopped when he saw the two people before him. Daryl's hands instantly released Beth, turning to look at the Korean. "Her." He finished.

Daryl stood up, picking up his crossbow and holding out a hand for Beth to grab. "We gotta get outta here. Dunno how many more are on their way, but we're gonna be gone when they come." Daryl said, noticeably avoiding Glenn's persistent stare. Beth took his hand, allowing him to pull her up and onto her feet.

They all began to hurry off, but Daryl felt the tug on his hand that caused him to spin around. Beth was wobbling, her eyes looking all around the room. She looked terrified. "Beth?" He asked, diving forward before as she fell to the side. His left arm caught her before she hit the floor, and with further inspection, he looked over his shoulder at Glenn.

"What the hell happened to her?" Michonne asked, running to them with her sword by her side.

Daryl looked down at the girl in his arms as her eyes searched their surroundings. "Bastards." He whispered as he saw even more bruises. "We need to get her to camp."

"I can carry her." Glenn said, stepping forward, but Daryl gripped Beth tighter, his posture like a bear protecting its cub. It made Glenn step back, his hands slightly up in the air. "Or not. That's cool too."

"I'll do it." Daryl grumbled in a muffled voice. Promptly, he put the Horton on his back and wrapped his arms beneath Beth's arms and legs, picking her up. He held a pistol in his left hand, prepared to kill anyone who tried to stop him from taking her. The whole situation made him remember how he had picked her up in the house before she was taken, and when he looked down at her foot that had no shoes in, he saw how it was purple and swollen. Of course the creeps wouldn't give her any medicine for it.

Beth was content in his arms, leaning against him and placing her hand on his chest. Her mind was swimming, still suffering the after effects from being hit in the head so hard. She took the moment to allow her mind to run wild of thoughts about the man holding her. He had gotten more buff since she left, his muscles clear as day through his maroon flannel. Beth allowed her hands to slowly drift down, feeling a tremor run through Daryl's body. Her eyes slowly began to fall, and soon she was unaware of the world around her, only barely hearing a loud pop in the distance.

A shot rung out, this one by her ears, and Beth's eyes darted open. They were surrounded by dead bodies.

"Daryl..." She said, clinging onto him and closing her eyes, wishing it all to disappear. "This isn't you, killin' men." Her voice quivered, and Daryl took in her words, believing that meant she was afraid of him. Beth was innocent, there was no way she could understand. This was why he couldn't get close to her, he'd corrupt her.

"You don't know nothin' 'bout me." He whispered to her, and Beth felt the ice that shot through her heart with his words. She turned her head away from him as her eyes began to water. This wasn't the reunion she had wanted.

She shoved away from him slightly, moving her leg out of his grasp. "I can walk." She told him.

Daryl looked down at her as Glenn and Michonne ran out of the doors ahead of them, noticing her angered expression. "Yea, well I don't care if you can run a damn marathon. I'm carryin' you." She was so stubborn. He lifted the thin girl up, making sure he had a good grip, before walking out of the building.

"Oh, thank God." Rick said, running up to them. "Are you alright?" He asked her, and Beth smiled and nodded. No, she wasn't. Wasn't sure she'd ever be okay again.

"Beth!" Beth turned her head, seeing Carl standing in the back of one of two trucks. She then saw everything around them. Blood everywhere. There were more dead people from when they had fought their way into the building. Daryl waited for her to say something about it, almost patronizing her. She wanted to comment, let him know she knew he had to do it, but Beth didn't know how to get the words out, so she allowed him to put her in a dark gray truck instead.

The interior looked brand new and unused, other than a few things here and there that showed Daryl had been using it. A broken arrow lay in the floor board, and a few sleeveless shirts were strewn around in the back seat. Beth lifted herself up gently but became distracted, seeing something on the dash. She reached forward, picking up what appeared to be a photo.

Daryl watched silently from beside her as she picked up the image, flipping it over to see her own face, just a bit younger. Her eyes flashed from the picture to him. "How did you get this?" She asked, her fingers gingerly gliding over the worn out paper.

"Went back to the prison, had to get somethin' to show people I met. Ain't no one gonna tell me the truth if I asked them if they seen a pretty lil' blond girl with big blue eyes, so I needed the picture to be able to read their faces when they saw you." His eyes looked away from her. "Found it in your daddy's cell." He opened the glove compartment, pulling out a small object. "Along with this." In his palm sat Hershel's wedding ring. He had taken it off after Beth's momma was finally dead, but there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't have it with him.

No, that was before. Before the governor.

"Daryl, we're gonna head on." Rick said, hinting that they needed to get going. Daryl nodded, and Rick looked to Beth. "Glad to have you back." Then he walked off toward the truck his son was in, Michonne and Glenn following after.

"Thank you." Beth said with a grin as she slipped the ring on her finger. She looked up at him, needing to see his face again, but his eyes deflected her own. "It wasn't your fault. My dad would never have blamed you for any of it."

"That's 'cause your dad was a good man. Always seein' the best in people even when it wasn't there."

Beth put her hand out to grab his, but he took it away before she could. She tried to fight the hurt that had been overwhelming her since she saw him. The feeling of rejection was painful enough without it coming from the one person she really needed. "There's good in you, Daryl. Not a damn thing you can say to me that would make me think otherwise."

How could he look her in the eye after she had seen what a mess he could make of more than just walkers? "How the hell can you be so blind? I killed all of these men, Beth. I did it, and I don't regret a damn thing. They deserved it after what they did to you. No, they deserved worse. Should'a... Should'a done something." Daryl's knuckles began to turn white on the Horton. "I couldn't save you, just like I couldn't save your daddy."

"What do you mean? I'm alive, ain't I?" Beth grabbed his hand, and he turned, looking at her. He had tears in his eyes, and Beth smiled up at him. "I'm here." She said, hoping to get him out of this state of recklessness he had suddenly slipped into. He tried to pull his hand back once more, but Beth wasn't so easy to give up, even in her weak state. "Don't pull away from me." She pleaded.

Daryl tried once again to pull his arm away, but once again, Beth held on even as it pulled her from the car and back into the field of dead men. He saw her wince when he foot hit the ground. "God dammit, Beth!"

"What do you mean you couldn't save me?" She asked, her grip on his hand tightening. "Tell me." He was trying to get away, trying to build up walls, but she intended on being inside when he did. This was what Daryl did. He kept everything inside, made people think he was just a scary guy, but then you see him with children and you know not a damn thing he makes people think about himself is true.

Daryl shook his head, finally ripping his hand away. "Look at you, girl! You can hardly fuckin' stand. And I know they didn't jus' beat you in there. You think I didn't notice you holdin' your legs together like a taped up pair of scissors?" He pointed at her, his voice low and scratchy. "Ain't nothin' gonna fix that. I came too damn late. A month too late."

And there it was. The truth. Beth was broken, and beyond saving in Daryl's eyes.

She finally moved her hand back, turning away from him. They stood like that for a while, him just facing her back. It was the first time he could remember her looking so defeated, her shoulders slumped, and he was the cause of it. He was the asshole that decided to yell at her right after she got away from being tortured, simply cause he was pissed off at himself.

'_You ain't never gonna do anything right, little brother.'_

Merle's voice echoed in his head, and Daryl realized what he had just told Beth. "Hold on a second. Beth, I didn't mean-"

She looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes glistening, but her mouth formed into a heart-wrenching smile. "We should get goin'." He wanted to apologize. Wanted to be the one to grab her hand for once, beg her to forgive him. Yet, his only response was a gruff mumble, then he turned away.

'_I'm here.' _She had told him.

Yes, she was here. Even if it didn't make sense to him. Of all the places she could have ended up, she ended up with him. Maybe he couldn't get close to her, maybe he couldn't care for her like he wanted, but he could protect her. Keep her from all of the evil in the world, but it had to be from far away. Not only would it be inappropriate, but he would destroy her. Vitiate her pure thoughts, make her into some evil creature, make her into everyone else that was in this world that was driven by survival at any cost. He would turn her into someone like him, and that was something Daryl Dixon couldn't allow.

When he thought back to anytime things had gone good in his life, Beth was there. Nothing was good until the prison, and even after the prison, he was happy. All because of her.

He closed her door, hiding the fact that his hand was on fire where she touched him, and he got in the front drivers side, closing his door and turning the engine. Beth watched his muscles move and she was unsure if she had ever seen anything so mesmerizing.

Daryl was aware of her eyes on him, and as much as he wanted to know the reason behind it, striving to know if she cared for him, he knew he couldn't allow himself to ask. He had spent the month making himself stop and get over his feelings the had emerged in that funeral home, but seeing her again, how happy she was to find it was him that rescued her, it made them all come rushing back ten fold.

It wasn't that he thought she was a little girl, no. It pained him how fully alert he was that this female beside him with toned muscles from yanking on the chains and curves that could break a man's heart was indeed a woman. Daryl had to fight his feelings for a few reasons. Besides wanting to keep her pure, he knew that no one would approve. No one at the camp would allow him with Beth, and even though he wished it wasn't true, he cared about those people's opinions. So, he had to stop. He had to cut his losses, and allow her to be with someone that actually could make her happy, even if the thought of it made him want to find the guy and break and arrow off into his damn neck.

"You can go ahead and rest. It's gonna be a while." He said, looking over at her, but finding she was already sound asleep. Her pink lips parted, breath coming out and filling the car with sweetness. His lower half began to ache, and he cursed himself for always thinking with the wrong head. Girl been through hell and back and all he could think about was getting her into his bed? He made himself sick.

'_She's a perty little thang, brother. Grow a pair and give her a go.'_

Daryl shook his head. He had never been able to get Merle's voice out of his head, and it was times like this that he really hated the guy. No doubt in his mind that Merle would have said the same thing if he was still alive. In fact, he had never asked Beth, but he wondered if Merle had ever tried to get with her, like he did with basically every other female he came across.

His eyes looked back to the girl as they drove down a small dirt road. Everything about her was beautiful to him. Her soft skin that was making him lick his lips, her wavy blond hair, spread out around her shoulders and trailing down her back. Everything about her made him want to be a good man for her. He wasn't gonna do her or anybody no good by being the man he was.

No, stop. Stop thinking about it as if it can really happen.

Daryl looked away, turning the steering wheel to get onto the main road. It suddenly hit him that he didn't tell Beth something, and as much as he knew she should know, he couldn't find it within himself to wake her up. How much shit had she gone through? What all had they done to her? Would she ever recover? He didn't know the answers, but he intended on finding them all out.

Both trucks got to the camp at the same time, the gates opening and allowing them to pass. Daryl pulled in beside Rick's truck, opening his door to get out. He was about to go around and get Beth whenever he felt something metal being pressed to the back of his head. "What did I tell you about leaving without my permission?"

Daryl turned around, facing his assailant. "Maggie, I had a lead. Y'know I had to take it."

Rick and Michonne came up beside him,Carl standing behind. "Put the gun down." Rick said, and she scoffed.

Glenn came from behind them, his hand held out. "Maggie, listen for a second."

"You shouldn't have left! None of you! A herd came through, breakin' down the South gate. Dozens got in and we had to fend for ourselves without four of our best fighters." Daryl went to speak, but Maggie cut him off. "And you with your 'leads'. Beth's dead, Daryl. Get off of your heroic high horse and let the rest of us grieve. You think I don't want to go out all the time and search for her? I do. But, we got people here who need to be taken care of. Children, elderly. Someone has to protect them, not go off on trips that lead to nothin'." She breathed out, and slowly began to lower her gun. "Get inside and gear up. We got a fence to mend." Maggie ordered, walking towards the building that everyone was sleeping in. Glenn went to grab her shoulder. "What?" She spun around.

Daryl stood in front of her with a petite blond in his arms, looking down at her with a ghost of a smile on his lips. "We found 'er."

Maggie looked at all of them, needing some reassurance that this was actually happening. If she went over there and that girl wasn't Beth, she just knew that something would give. "You... You found her?" She asked, and Rick nodded.

"Daryl found her. He's the reason she's here." Glenn said, reminding Maggie that Daryl did what he had to do.

She stepped forward, then her steps turned to runs and she hurried in front of Daryl. Her heart pounded in her ears as she looked at the face of her little sister in the arms of a man she had just threatened to kill. "Beth." She breathed out, her hand touching the girls hand, squeezing tightly. "Why isn't she waking up?"

"Fell asleep on the ride here. She's pretty beat up. We need to get her inside and get one of the doc's." Daryl answered, his need to be close to her becoming ever stronger as he realized he would have to put her down and leave long enough for someone to get her changed.

Maggie nodded, moving out of the way so that Daryl could go. She walked beside him, watching her little sister sleep with disbelief. She had always doubted Daryl would find her sister, and here they were. She was alive. Beth was alive.

Tears slid down Maggie's cheek while Glenn pulled her into his embrace. "I thought she was dead." She gasped, ignoring the blood stains on Glenn's shirt.

"We all did." He replied.

Maggie's eyes shot towards the man who held her sister, seeing the way he refused to take his eyes off the girl. "Not everyone." She commented, and Glenn turned his head, seeing Daryl's back as he let the door close behind him.


	2. Chapter 2-I Ain't A Child

**So, this chapter became way too long, and therefore, it will be more than just two chapters. Maybe more than three. If you would like me to make it quite a few chapters, just let me know! I love to read your comments and reviews. ;) Plus, I needed to hurry and get this up before the season finale.**

**Enjoy!**

Chilling dreams had come to Beth while she slept. Nightmares more than dreams, really. More than one, all different with one similar factor. Daryl. He would come to her, save her, and take her away. Then, the dreams would branch off in different directions, each one Daryl brutally dying before her unwilling eyes. Once in a bloody car crash, where she unconvincingly lived. Another by walkers, where she somehow managed to get away from the phantoms of humankind and he did not. And her least favorite of all, his death by the men that had taken her, where Daryl tried to protect her, but they killed him and took her back and locked her up in a cage. That was the one she feared the most. That was the one that she confused with reality.

Beth opened her bright eyes, feeling someone in the room with her. Before she could see which disgusting man it was with her this time, she quickly shoved herself up, her screams emanating from her body in a fearsome, shrill form. Not that it would help.

Hands went to her shoulders, and Beth shook them off frantically. "Jesus, Beth!" Daryl yelled. When she saw his sharp blue eyes, her body instantly cooled. Daryl's movements stopped when he recalled her wounds. His hands fell away, leaving a lingering silence.

"You're actually here...?" She asked with doubt. It couldn't be possible, could it? She looked over him, as if she would be able to find something out of place that would tell her it wasn't him. A missing scar. The wrong colored knife. Anything. Yet, everything seemed to match up, down to the husky attitude. "Oh my god. Daryl." He watched as her eyes watered, then spilled over, coming down her face in salty lines.

"Thought you said you don't cry no more?" He asked in a breathy tone, unsure of how to take her tears. Beth only responded with a little laugh, then she threw herself into his arms for the second time, only this time his arms automatically returned the favor. The action had become something of a tradition between the two, and he thought it was about time he realized it, even if it was still strange and new to him.

He hadn't showered or even changed, making Beth wonder how long he had been with her. The smell of death came off of him in waves, yet she couldn't find it within herself to care. He was here. Thirty four days of praying, and he was here, and he saved her. She felt on top of the world... That was, until she recalled everything he had said the night before. About how she was incapable of being saved.

Daryl felt her small hands slowly unwrap themselves from him, and a gelidity took over his body at the loss of her warmth. When he saw her face, he was completely and utterly what she was transfixed on. "Look, I-"

A creak echoed throughout the room, and both Beth and Daryl slowly turned to see an open door. Maggie stood there gawking, her eyes fixed solely on Beth. The air seemed to be sucked out of the room like a tornado had entered. "Bethy?" She whispered, and Beth sat flabbergasted. Maggie closed the door behind her, not sparing Daryl a glance when she turned back and took an unsure step toward her sister. She had never liked how much he cared for Beth, and it angered her even more that he refused to leave her side the entire night and day. "I heard you screamin'..."

"Maggie..." Beth took off, running into the arms of her welcoming sister.

Maggie eagerly grabbed her up, swinging her sister around until Beth let out a little whimper of pain, and Maggie quickly apologized. They both busted out into happy fits of laughter. "I thought you were dead!" Maggie choked out, yanking her sister in for another deadly hug.

Beth stepped back a little bit, staring up at the woman she had admired her whole life. "I'm sorry, I know I must'a given all of you so much trouble."

Her sister fell silent, and only Daryl knew why. Maggie didn't look for Beth. Didn't give Beth's kidnapping the time of day because she had others to look after. Daryl watched as Beth's eyebrows began to furrow in confusion, her mind trying to tie the ends of two and two together. "Don't apologize." Daryl quickly said, drawing both of their attention. He realized that they both had forgotten him in the room, and a shyness creeped inside of him. He averted his eyes, slightly. "You didn't do a damn thing wrong."

Beth's brilliant smile shone like pure sunlight in the room then, and she quickly turned back to her sister, who had been looking at Daryl with gratitude and confusion. "How are you? How's Glenn?" Her tone was almost like a prying relative trying to get gossip, but everyone present knew it was her just being Beth. Lightening the mood, having a sense of humor.

Daryl stood in the corner of the small room as Beth and her sister had a moment to themselves, since they hadn't seen each other for a five weeks. She asked about Judith, to which Daryl quickly mumbled that she was great, kickin' ass just like he always knew she would. It was when Maggie mentioned their father, and the tears started coming out that he thought it be best for him to leave, despite his body protesting. He could see Beth later.

He was almost out of the door when Beth looked up at him, her big blue eyes pouring into his. "Where are you goin'?" She asked, but Maggie was the one to answer.

"Daryl's got guard duty. You can see him another time." Her voice just illuminated happiness, and even more so at the thought of Daryl leaving. But, Beth wasn't so quick to let him depart. He had saved her, and now she was going to be asked to keep away from him? After a month of solitude?

"Wait." Beth said, stepping away from Maggie. "You can't go." She felt panicked. There was only one place she felt safe, and that was near Daryl.

Daryl stopped and looked at the girl, something hurting deep within his chest. He didn't want to leave her just as badly as she didn't want it. He felt responsible for her, but not only that. He felt like she was one of the few people here that he felt comfortable with. But, the glare in Maggie's eyes told him it wasn't really his choice. He recalled how she was thankful in the beginning, when he was searching for Beth. But, after a couple of weeks, she started to get irritated with him always being out looking for her sister instead of being at camp and helping them out. Soon, she began to question his motives. Maggie herself had long given up hope, so why was Daryl, a person who hardly knew Beth, so focused on finding her? The only response he had been able to give her was that he was with Beth when she was taken and that he felt it was his fault, which was the truth, but most definitely not all of it.

"We're grateful that you found her, Daryl." Maggie said, then looked at Beth. "But, he's still part of the group, and you got other people you gotta see." The older sister watched as Beth slowly began to nod, and the older redneck kept his eyes on hers the entire time as he walked out. What had gone on between them? "Come on, I got someone for you to see."

Beth begrudgingly looked the other direction, her and Maggie leaving out the opposite door. As they walked, Maggie thought it would be just as good a time as ever to ask Beth something she had been wondering. "Did anything happen with you and Daryl after the prison?" Beth's eyes caught hers, and Maggie knew her sister well enough to know that indeed, something had. "That hillbilly, he _knows_ that you're still a kid-"

"A kid? I'm eighteen, Maggie. Be nineteen in a month. Carl went on runs with Rick when he was fourteen. Not to mention everything that happened with momma, daddy, Jimmy, Zach..." She shook her head, continuing to walk. "If I'm a kid, it's only because you're making me be." Beth stopped momentarily, kicking a rock on the pavement. "And nothin' happened between me and Daryl. I think somewhere along the way, well.. He just decided he didn't hate me as much as he thought he did." She recalled them burning the house together, and Beth smirked.

The older sister frowned. Beth had never been the one for confrontation. "I can see Daryl rubbed off on you." Beth looked at her with a smile, and Maggie gave her a little nudge. "What's that look for?"

Beth bit her lip. "It's just... If there's one person I would want to be like, it's Daryl Dixon."

Well, that was a first. Maggie looked at her little sister, thinking she saw something that might give her some insight into whatever was going on in the mind of hers, but found no answers. "Right through these doors." Maggie told her, opening something like a shed. Beth walked in hesitantly, but the feeling blew away as she heard little gurgles and the beginning of a babies crying.

"Judy." Beth beamed, dropping to her knees in front of the girl and pulling her up in her arms. "You're getting so big!" She laughed. Judith wiggled in her arms, but smiled and laughed nonetheless. The baby giggled, and it was then that Beth saw Carl in the corner. He gave her a little wave, and Beth smiled and waved back.

"Hey, Beth." He looked down in a shy manner, and Beth felt her need to give him a big hug start pushing it's way through all of the others like a damn steam roller. She took Judith on her hip, then walked over to Carl and pulled him to her. He was nearly as tall as she was, if not taller. When did that happen?

Carl stiffened in her arms, not used to getting affection, but then he remembered that it was Beth who was holding onto him, and so he wrapped his arms around her frame and held on tightly.

The rest of the day was spent with Maggie showing Beth around, introducing her to the new folks of the group and letting her catch up with the old ones. There were sixty two people in the encampment. It was a park with two sets of fences, like the prison. The first, largest fence going all the way around the park that was a few miles in perimeter, and the smaller fence was around the building Beth had been in. Both sets had spikes coming out of the ground on the outside of it, which was supposed to prevent a build up like the ones at the prison. The building contained two generators, two sets of bathrooms with showers, an infirmary, a rather large closet with hunting gear and camping supplies, and a lunchroom. There were around fifty yards between the smaller fence and the building itself, so the people on night shift stayed in unclaimed tents outside, while the others slept along the wall inside the lunchroom in their own personal tents, that way everyone had privacy.

She hadn't seen Daryl once that day, not even at lunch, and Beth felt like that was the intentions of her sister. She felt it even more so when Maggie began to introduce her to the younger men of the group, a man named Bryan in his mid 20s, and a guy named Kevin who was a year or so older than her. Maggie had introduced them all as if they were on a dating show, and Beth had been polite, but inside, she was suffocating. She didn't like being around so many people. Anxiety was building, and she had to step away more than once to catch her breath. Of course, Beth wasn't exactly interested in finding a mate for the apocalypse at that time, especially not after what she had gone through most recently, and so she pulled her sister away while waving goodbye.

When dinner time came, Beth's eyes search fervently for Daryl, but still came up empty. He wasn't avoiding her, was he? She shrugged it off as she sat with Judith on her hip and fed the girl, her eyes longingly staring at her own untouched food on the table.

It was like that for the next two weeks, her eyes never finding more than the angel wings on Daryl's back as he walked away. Funny. She had seen every single one of the other people's faces on more than one occasion since she had been there, but not his.

Beth sunk into her duties, taking care of the children, becoming Judith's nanny once again, dishes, food, and she had even began to take secret lessons with Michonne. Maggie was hell bent on keeping Beth out of harms way, but what she didn't get was that no where was safe from harm. Beth knew that first hand. Besides, there was no way she was going to go back to the Beth that stayed inside, never helping with watch and not having experience with hand to hand combat with walkers.

They were both outside at the back of the building where Michonne was on watch, but their main attentions were else where. Judith was inside with Carol, who Beth also spent some time catching up with, and all of the younger kids were napping. The food had been taken care of by two other people, and Beth had free time.

"Remember, defense is just as important as offense, if not more." Michonne said, her fist swinging through the air, performing an elegant punch that would split a cheek open. Beth stood beside her, clenching her fist and throwing it out, making Michonne laugh a little. "Punch straight out. Imagine a line from your hand to your target, and follow it."

Beth took a deep breath, then imagined the line. It was faint, but as her mind focused more, the more opaque it became. She pushed her fist out, breaking through the air, and this time, she heard no chuckling beside her. Beth looked over at the woman, and Michonne looked back with an impressed expression.

"Alright, alright. So you can throw a punch, big deal. Let's try some walker-target practice." Michonne handed Beth some of the knives, which Beth took eagerly. The throwing knives had become Beth's favorite weapon. "Minus the walkers." Michonne added before walking over to pick up one of the targets from behind a tree. She sat it up, then pointed to the badly drawn on walker head.

Beth laughed, making Michonne raise her eyebrows. "I'm going to say that you weren't an artist before this all happened?"

Michonne flipped her off, then walked back towards her and stood over her left shoulder. "Whenever you're ready."

The blond lifted her hand with the knife, bending her elbow and stretching her arm back. She took a breath, looking at the target. Then, her wrist swung forward and her fingers released the weapon, which sped through the air and hit the jaw. "Yes!"

"Not so fast. Unless you hit under the jaw, it didn't kill it. You have to aim for the forehead, the eye, or the temple." She told Beth, motioning for her to try again.

Beth practiced for another hour or so before Michonne placed her hand out to stop her. "You're damn good. Looks like I'm alright at this teaching thing after all." She pulled something out of her back pocket, then handed it to Beth. "Let's see how you do with one of them." Michonne said pointing at the gate where a walker was coming up, and the new, larger knife burned in Beth's hand.

She nodded. "Walker's ain't the one's I'm scared of anymore."

Michonne looked over the girl, her eyes taking in the stance. She knew that stance well, it was something she had gotten used to, being that she saw it every time she looked in the mirror. "Your sister thinks you're weak, you know." Michonne told her, and Beth looked back.

"I know."

"That's because she's blinded by memories. To me, it's pretty damn clear you're stronger than half the people in here, and mentally stronger than all of them." Michonne smiled, patting Beth on the shoulder as she walked her to the fence. "I'll be by you, but I need you to realize that there's still a chance that I won't be able to help you, so don't slack off." The woman told her with her hand on the lock. Beth nodded, and Michonne slid the gate open.

The walker stumbled forward, and Beth held the thick knife in her hand. She lifted her hand, thrusting the knife through the air and out of her hand, which landed dead center in the walkers head. It burbled and crunched, blood seeping through the decaying flesh. Then, she ran up and ripped it out, turning back to Michonne. "Was that okay?"

"You're not done, Blondie." Michonne said with wide eyes, and Beth turned to see more walkers coming towards her.

Beth felt the slightest panic, but gripped her knife in anticipation, along with another one she had in her pocket. There were only four of them, but it was still more than anyone had trusted Beth to kill. She tried not to look at their faces, afraid she'd see someone she knew as held both knives in her hands, bringing her arms around her. Then, she yanked her limbs, making them rush out with a force Beth didn't know she was capable of, the knives landing in two walkers heads. After she had killed off two, one grabbed her arm with her last knife, and she yanked it back. Beth moved, gracefully swinging her arm around her body and successfully landing the blow right in the forehead.

But, her knife got lodged in their head, and Beth didn't have enough time to pull it out. She threw up her hands as another grabbed at her. It's weight was too much, and it forced Beth to fall on her back with the walker above her, it's teeth gnashing with old flesh and blood oozing out and onto Beth's shirt green.

Her panic was in full force now as she fought with the walker. The teeth were getting closer to her flesh now, and Beth felt the tears start to rim her eyes. She had been so stubborn, and now she was going to die.

She turned her head in a last moment resort, hoping to find a stick, but all she found was a dead zombie. It's head was cracked open beside her, and Beth saw her future in it. That's what awaited her one day. She felt her strength fleeting, and Beth looked at the cracked skull beside her. Her eyebrows wrinkled, and she quickly used her adrenaline to jostle the walker off of her, reaching her hand out to the skull and breaking off the bone, then whimpering as the walker came back down on her.

Michonne's guilt began to steadily rise looking at the two bodies lie motionless on the grass. "Beth?" She asked. She had just wanted Beth to know what she was getting into, didn't think twice about whether or not she'd actually be able to do it. Michonne slid the gate open again, looking down at the blond hair fluffed out on the ground.

Then, the body moved, shoving the other off. Beth sat up covered in blood and brains, but turned and looked at Michonne with a surprised smile. "I did it!" She said, looking back to the zombie who had a piece of skull bone sticking out of it's left eye.

A hand stuck out, and Beth took it graciously, allowing Michonne to pull her up. "You scared me for a moment there." She said, and Beth laughed.

"I scared myself for a moment there." She looked down at her clothes, sighing at what would definitely be staining. But, the time had come and passed for her to get upset over trivial matters such as that. This was no time for frozen yogurts, pet ponies, and public group singing. Not anymore. "I better go get cleaned up before dinner. Do you have to be on watch during dinner tonight?" Beth asked.

"Tired of sitting with the hormonal teens?" Michonne questioned with a smirk, not realizing how accurate she was.

Beth nodded. "I still don't..." She took in a deep breath, knowing that if anyone was willing to listen and was able to understand, it was this woman. "I still don't feel comfortable around them. Around most people." She looked towards the building where she knew dozens of people currently were, readying themselves for one of the meals. "Not sure if I ever will be."

Michonne watched the girl beside her. She had become protective over her recently. "Don't push yourself. You do whatever makes you feel comfortable, and you do it on your own time." She walked passed Beth, looking over her shoulder when she didn't hear her walking behind her. "Your sister said I get to be off watch tonight, so save me a spot." She bent down, picking up the clothes Beth had brought outside with her in case something happened and she needed to change.

Beth caught the clothes, then headed to the sound proof shed that had been made for Judith to play in. "Thanks." She called back before walking inside.

Dinner was deer meat, baked beans, and cream style corn. Also known as Heaven to Beth. Her mouth watered, jaw hanging open slightly as she eyed the food. She still wasn't used to eating anything solid, let alone meat.

After they put food on her plate, she turned to the rest of the room, her eyes scouting out the redneck almost immediately, who had finally showered. It was the first time he had been at dinner since she got there, and the first time she had seen his face too. Beth felt something in her stomach that she brushed off as hunger, but felt grief overcome her as she saw that the side of the circle he sat at was filled. Carol beside him to the left, Sasha and Bob on the right, and a few others she couldn't remember the names of. She mentally sighed, turning away as his eyes began their own hunt.

She felt his gaze burning into her back as she found the group of younger people that she had been sitting with recently, including Bryan and Kevin. She would get up when Michonne got there, but until then, she wasn't willing to sit alone.

"Hey, Beth." Bryan said, scooting over to allow her to sit down. "I thought for sure you would be sitting with the leaders now that they're not all on watch." Bryan said, motioning towards where Daryl and the others sat. Beth looked up, finally acknowledging Daryl's gaze.

Beth smiled at him, but her heart ached as she saw Carol draw his attention away. "They're kinda busy." She looked back at the people around her. "Besides, I need to socialize with people my own age." She said, repeating what Maggie had told her time and time again since she got there.

–

"Damn kids." Daryl mumbled, neglecting his food as he watched Beth shed fake laughs for the people around her. She wasn't doing it to intentionally get on his nerves, she was genuinely just trying to make them happy, but that didn't stop the anger from rising from the pit of his stomach. First time they'd seen each other in two weeks and she didn't even come over and say hey? He had a right to be upset, or so he justified it to himself.

'_What the hell is goin' on with you, man? Gettin' jealous over some teenagers? Is that what you've turned in to?'_

A hand landed on his, and he jerked before looking up at Carol. "What is going on with you?" She asked, echoing Merle's question. Her eyes followed his gaze, seeing Beth. Quickly, he averted his view, but then heard Carol give a small laugh. "I think it's cute how overprotective you are of her," she looked at him, "but she's not a kid anymore, and it's good for her to talk with people her age after everything. She can make her own decisions without you playing the big brother." Daryl nearly snorted at the accusation. Big brother?

He watched them a little while longer before he spoke. "Coulda sworn I saw that Bryan kid sneakin' into one of the girls tents before." He turned to Carol. "I'm thinkin' we should put him on night duty."

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Beth's a woman. If she wants to sleep with a guy, she's going to sleep with a guy. We aren't here to keep people from repopulating." Daryl's eyes opened wide, him glancing back to the pretty blond who was now in a private conversation with the infamous Bryan. If he so much as looked at Beth the wrong way, Daryl was prepared to throw him out to the walkers.

"Yeah, we'll see." He mumbled again, picking up his plate and taking a rather large bite of meat.

Sasha chimed in, not realizing the fire she was flaming. "Bryan has been asking me about Beth lately. Wanting to know what she likes to do, things she hated, if she liked anyone, things like that." She sighed. "I didn't know much, just told him she liked singing and babies." That kid didn't need to know jack-shit.

"Shouldn't we be teachin' 'em to protect themselves instead of putting two together at random and calling it a pair?" Daryl muttered roughly, and Carol looked over at him. Sasha glanced to Bob, who was also staring at Daryl. "Beth's been through some hard shit, lately. I don't think we should be pushin' her to be with some kid, is all."

Carol began laughing beside him, furthering his momentary rage. "Daryl's a bit overprotective." She explained. "Must have been their time away together." She looked at him, a smirk on her lips. "She has this thing about her that makes it hard for you to not care, doesn't she, Pookie?" He snorted now. Carol had no idea. "But, I think I see a spark between them. Soon enough, we're going to have another Glenn and Maggie." Daryl began biting at the skin on his thumb, trying to shake the feeling that was taking over him. "Look how cute they are." Carol said when Bryan leaned back, his hand only inches from Beth's.

Daryl scooted his plate away from him, standing up. He knew Beth was just as uncomfortable as he was right then, though for different reasons. He walked towards the two, towering above them as he fiddled with the strap on his crossbow, but still tried to maintain an assertive look. "We need to talk." Beth smiled, but quickly hid it as she apologized to Bryan and began to stand up. "Get your plate." He told her, then walked off. Beth followed behind him closely, seeing that he was leading her outside.

"Where are we going?" She asked, and Daryl just opened the door, letting her walk through. She saw a few chairs by the wall, and looked back at him. "Thank you."

She'd never been so thankful for someone in her life. That room made her feel anxiety like no one had ever known before, and Daryl had realized it.

"N'problem." He told her, letting the door close. She sat down, holding her plate in her lap. Daryl took off his Horton, sitting it beside him as he fell back into the chair. They both looked out before them, watching as several walkers came to the fence, gnawing on the thick metal.

"It's funny," Beth said, continuing to watch the creatures. "For some reason, I was under the impression that when... If I got out," she turned to look at the man who was relaxing beside her. "Everything would be different. I was so determined to get away from them that I nearly forgot what else was out there." The wind began to blow, pushing Daryl's long hair into his face. When he eventually could see Beth, she was too busy attempting to get her own hair under control. "At least I'm safe now." She said, but Daryl stopped her.

His voice came out frustrated and angered, but he just wanted to make sure she took it to heart. He needed her to keep her guard at all times. "No, you ain't. No one's ever safe. Not anymore." He shook his head, making her feel like a scolded child. "It's stupid to think like that."

"I guess I'm stupid 'round you." A divine smile made an appearance on her lips, seemingly unswayed by his demeanor. Daryl felt that feeling come over him again, that feeling of tension that always made him more graceless and clumsy. "You're the only one I feel safe around anymore." Beth told him matter-of-factually. Hell, she wasn't even sure she felt safe around Maggie. Her sister had gone through a alteration recently. She wasn't the same girl Beth had grown up with.

"I'm the last person you should feel safe 'round." He mumbled, making Beth roll her eyes. "I'm jus' some redneck asshole."

Her laughter sprung out, making Daryl get lost in the melody. "Who's a jerk when he's drunk." She said, making them both recall the night they burnt down the house. The night that she had helped him burn his past to the ground.

Daryl allowed himself to laugh now too. That was the night he stopped seeing her as a child. She proved herself to him, even though he was the one being a piece of shit to her. "I blame you for that. I was just supposed to be playin' chaperone."

"Yea? Well, you needed to lighten up. I bet you would have taken that thing," she pointed to the Horton, "and shot me through and through if I would have scared you a bit." They both knew exactly what he was going to say, so Beth said it at the same time he did. "I ain't scared of nothin'."

"You're scared of somethin', Daryl Dixon. Somethin' that scares the shit out of you. So much so that you won't even acknowledge it exists." Beth picked up a piece of meat, her eyes glancing to the fence once more. "One day you're gonna tell me." She told him.

Something that scared him? He couldn't think of what it possibly would be. He wasn't scared of being in this world. Those things out there, the walkers, they made him angry. They made him nervous. But, fear? That wasn't something he knew, they hadn't been introduced yet. "What, are we girlfriends now?" He asked after a few moments of silence with a condescending tone.

She chuckled, leaning back in her own chair. "I'd say we're friends." After what they had been through, that was an understatement. She tilted her head, turning it slightly to see him and flashed him a grin. "Wouldn't you?"

He felt like he was about to drop into a bottomless pit, yet he kept skipping doltishly towards it. He knew it wouldn't end well to even be friends with the girl, but honestly, he needed her. He felt as if he could be himself around her, and she already knew about his past. He had told her without even thinking about it, which made her one of the few he had mentioned anything to. But, it wasn't the same as it was with the others. He had waited weeks, months even before telling Carol, and the only reason he had told her was because she had seen the scars on his back. He didn't want her knowing and thinking poorly of him.

With Beth, it was like talking to someone you've known for years. She hadn't shown pity towards him, either. That was something new.

_I'd say we're friends._

Friends, huh? You talked with friends about your problems, so yeah, they check yes under that. Friends get drunk together, so another yes. Friends go out, tearing up the Earth if another one is kidnapped, another check. Hell, friends even hug. And give piggyback rides. Friends hold hands in front of a stranger who was a beloved father's headstone, don't they? Do friends decide they want to stay in a house and make a life with each other? Do friends run for four and a half hours, trying to chase down the car that took the other? Do friends go into a group of horrible men with the intention of using them to find the other friend? Do friends constantly risk their life in the hopes of just being able to see the other friends face?

Daryl followed suit, turning his head to look at her. "Somethin' like that."

Beth took a mouthful of her food at last, the sensation making her give a pleasant moan. Daryl bit the skin by his nail, trying to think of anything else. It wasn't as if he liked her or anything. He had thought for a time that he had, but while she was sleeping, he had decided that it was simply because his mind was moving her from the "Girl" list, and placing her in the "Woman" list.

"Haven't seen you around in a while." She said gently, and he sighed as if he knew it was coming.

Daryl nodded, shifting uncomfortably. "There's been a lot to do lately."

"Don't give me that, Daryl Dixon." Beth said, laughing. But there was no humor in her voice. "You and I both know that ain't the reason." When he didn't respond, Beth shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what I did, or why you've been hiding from me, but I wish you would tell me." She breathed out, putting down her fork.

Daryl looked away from her, unable to handle whatever look she was going to give him. "I had to protect everyone. Gotta do my part in this group." Somehow, he'd become soft around this girl. It wasn't like him to feel so timid, especially not around a damn eighteen year old.

"You sound just like Maggie." She said, her voice still calm and sweet.

"What do you want from me, Beth?" Daryl asked her, his fingers gripping the edge of the chair to the point of pain. Did she think it was his choice? "What do ya want me to say?"

She scooted up, looking at him as if he just told her he ran over her puppy. "I want to know how someone can save somebody and then not even speak to them. How they can just leave that person, knowing that they are terrified." Her voice became quiet. "I want to know why you left me alone with all of these people."

Daryl stood up, walking towards her. "What, you think I wanted to leave you?" Beth looked shocked at his outburst, but even more from his words. He took a step away from her, running his hands over his face, afraid he was scaring her. "Your damn sister was the one that decided to fill up my days so that I didn't even have a minute to myself. She was the one who didn't want me near you." That made sense, considering she had done the same to Beth.

She stood up before him, the softest of smiles gracing her full lips. "You mean... You would have visited me if you could?"

"I would never have left." He said before he could stop himself, but once it was out, it couldn't be taken back in. He stopped, standing up straight as he tried to find an explanation in his mind. "I know you're scared, and I know you're afraid of what's lurking 'round out there," he sighed. "I would have stuck with you, makin' sure you knew you were protected from it." It was the gods honest truth. He had never been so protective over someone other than Lil' Asskicker.

Beth walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his torso. Daryl looked up at the sky as her heat spread throughout him. If someone would have told him two months ago if he'd be hugging Beth on a daily basis, and enjoying it, he would have told them to piss off. But, here he was.

"Beth?" Someone called as the handle to the door began to turn.

The two stepped away from one another, and Daryl walked to pick up his crossbow. He was going to walk around the person and leave until he saw it was Bryan. The guy stopped in front of Daryl, looking up at him. "Oh. Didn't know you were still out here." Bryan said.

"You think I just walked Beth out here and left her outside?" Daryl asked, his eyebrows lifting.

Bryan looked down, confounded by how the conversation so quickly turned against him. "What? Uh-"

Beth walked forward. "Hey." She said to Bryan, one of her smiles plastered on. "Is something wrong?" Daryl puffed up his chest, as one does when they feel like they need to be masculine.

Bryan looked between the two til' his eyes finally settled on Beth. "I didn't know if you were okay. Are you? You seemed fine before." The guy said, making Daryl snort. She obviously wasn't fine. She wasn't eating, and she was panicked. Beth had looked like she was going to run for the hills, but the guy didn't notice because as long as she was looking at him and smiling, he was oblivious to her health.

"Yea, I'm fine. Daryl just thought I should get some fresh air." Beth waved off his suspicion, picking up her plate that she still had barely been able to touch. "Am I needed back inside?" She asked.

"Beth, you need to eat." Daryl told her, motioning to the plate. It astonished her that he noticed something so insignificant, and she looked down at the food with yearning. But, she shook it off and looked back at Bryan.

"Is it Judy?" Beth asked him with wild eyes, getting suspicious as to why he hadn't answered her. Of course, it was just the mother in Beth coming out. Clearly, the guy was just making sure Beth was alright, yet her insecurities blew it out of the water and her mental default was Judith. Judith always came first.

Bryan shook his head. "No, no. Judith is fine. I was just thinking, I dunno." The guy bit his lip, looking at Beth with something that bordered on pure sin. Daryl gripped the Horton even tighter, willing himself to not shoot a bolt through his head. "I was wonderin' if you wanted to go on a walk with me? Around the camp, maybe?" He asked, and Daryl rolled his eyes at the kids attempts to be slick.

Well, that's something she wasn't used to. A man asking her to go for a walk. Beth wasn't really up for it, but the look in the man's eyes were almost pleading. What would the harm be, besides her food going to waste? "I guess-"

"I don't give a damn what the kid says, you're gonna eat." He said gently.

She knew he was right, since she had been so busy with Judith lately, she hadn't been eating much. Her stomach was making ferocious noises as they spoke. Yet, the conversation continued as if she wasn't even present. "Kid? Who are you calling a kid?" Bryan asked, walking closer to Daryl.

"I'll stop callin' you it when you prove to me why I shouldn't." Daryl replied, holding his place. "But, right now, that's what you're actin' like."

Bryan laughed, taking another step forward so that his and Daryl's chest were almost touching. "I don't have to prove a _damn _thing to you, old man."

Daryl's resolve was close to breaking, and the fact that the guy had called him old really lit a fucking spark inside of him. It wasn't even that he generally cared about the comment, it was just the fact that he knew Beth was so close and could hear every damn word. As far as he could tell, she hadn't thought him to be old, but what if she did now? What if this kid just gave her some damn epiphany in which she decided he wasn't worth her adolescent time?

"I'm not gonna fight you, kid." Bryan visibly stiffened, clearly not okay with Daryl calling him that. "Go on so the girl can eat." Daryl dismissed him, turning to walk back to his chair, but not before Bryan grabbed his arm.

"Do you have a problem?" He asked Daryl, mimicking the chest puffing. He looked like a rooster ready to attack. He shoved Daryl roughly in the chest, and Daryl scratched his chin before putting his finger out in front of him.

"I'm tellin' you now." He lowered his hand, taking a step forward and craning his neck. "Go back inside so Beth can eat her god damn food."

Beth sat her plate down, walking towards them with her hands out. What is it with guys and fighting? "How about we all just calm down before I get suffocated in the testosterone, alright?" But, they weren't listening to her. Bryan stupidly shoved Daryl again, causing the older man to take a step back. "Daryl, don't." Beth pleaded, and the man looked over at her.

Pulling a dick move, Bryan decided that would be the best time to throw his fist, hitting Daryl in the left cheek. After that, it was all just a hurricane of throws and slamming into the wall.

After the first punch, Daryl landed one of his own on the boys nose. Bryan wiped away some of the blood that gushed out, glaring at Daryl while wiping his hand on his pants. The younger man ran forward in an provoked endeavor to tackle Daryl, but Daryl caught the guy by his shirt, flinging him around and into the brick wall. He hit it with a thud, his arms flailed out against it.

"Stop!" Beth yelled, but they didn't. Daryl was stalking towards him, ready to tell him that it was enough and that their little fight was over, but Bryan kneed Daryl in the stomach. He lurched over, grasping the now pulsating part of his torso. The guy had a strong punch, he'd give him that much. Bryan reach out, slamming both of his fist down on Daryl's back and Daryl collapsed to the ground. His foot hooked Daryl in the jaw, knocking him with his back on the ground.

Beth saw the blood on Daryl and couldn't stop herself. She ran forward, snatching up the crossbow that had fell to the ground somewhere between the first punch and the bloody nose. "What the hell, Beth?" Bryan asked, eyes cast towards the blond holding the ready Horton in her hands.

She looked fierce as hell, almost fierce enough for Daryl to have momentarily forgotten that she was the same sweet innocent girl he had been talking to just a few minutes prior. The fact that she was gripping his crossbow and actually knew what she was doing with it overflowed him with pride, and for the first time in all of his life, he almost had a mind to hug her. Hugging someone had never been an instinct of his, but hell. This girl brought all sorts of things in him.

"I told you to stop, god dammit!" Beth shouted, walking between Bryan and Daryl. Bryan slowed down while looking at her. He looked like he was going to stop, he did. He even turned to her, nodded a little bit, and took a small step back. Beth gave him a stern look, but began to put down her weapon. She knelt towards Daryl, her hand reaching out to touch his face. "Now that that's-" Before she could finish, Bryan ran forward, shoving Beth away like a psychopath. She grunted as her arm slammed painfully into the ground, watching as Bryan took his foot and stomped on Daryl's stomach. Beth had the crossbow ready before he put all of his pressure from his foot on Daryl, and soon he was toppling over with an arrow straight through his shin, but she didn't stop there. She landed another one in his thigh, then one more in the arm that reached for his gun in the back of his pants.

Daryl stood up when the guy still wasn't down, and Beth let go of the Horton, dropping it to the dirt with one hand on the the ground. She supported herself while Daryl landed a blow to the jaw, letting the guy fall. He looked up to Beth, his eyes searching for any sign of her being hurt.

"Are you okay?" Daryl asked, but Beth's only response was to walk up to him and punch him in the face where he wasn't already hurt. "The hell is wrong with you?"

She had tears rimming in her eyes, but she looked beyond pissed. "You can't just go off, gettin' into random fights. Now your hurt and there's more of a chance of you dying. God, you're such a jack ass! Don't you know I-we need you?"

"Well, you didn't have to punch me." He said, rubbing at his jaw.

Her gentle hands went to his face, touching it in random places to see if he would wince. The majority of the time, he did. "We have to clean this up." She said, looking up at him. Daryl lifted his hands to remove hers, but found himself just lingering with his fingers grasping her palms, breath heated and heavy.

'No, no. Stop. Stop before you do something you regret, dammit.' He told himself, becoming pissed that it had literally reached a point where he had to have conversations with himself to stop from touching her.

Bryan began to shift on the ground, and Beth surprised them both by being the one to step away. "I'm going to tell Carol he needs some medical assistance." She turned, walking to the door. Before she fully disappeared, she looked over her shoulder. "I'll meet you near the showers, alright?" Then she was gone.

The showers? Daryl tried to keep his mind from going to all of the possibilities of that. She was a woman, but that didn't mean he had to like her. His eyes glanced to the food sitting on the chair, uneaten. "Shit."

–

Beth walked into the lunch room, only to find that it was in utter chaos. People were standing around, yelling and screaming different things and profanities. Beth found Carol and Rick in the largest group, so she walked over to it. "Carol-" Beth began, but she was instantly cut off, something that apparently was some sort of custom here.

"Oh, Beth!" Carol yelled. "Thank God. You have got to talk some sense into your sister."

Maggie appeared from behind a few people, her face already showing how frustrated she was becoming. "I said no. End of discussion. We find another way."

Beth looked around, finding herself more confused than she had ever been before. "Excuse me?" She asked, then she saw Michonne come into the group.

"She's a lot stronger than you give her credit for." Michonne said, gesturing towards Beth. "I've seen it first hand. If Carl and Kevin can do it, Beth sure as hell can." Beth needed answers, and quickly. What the hell was going on here? "You need to stop thinking of her as your little sister that's always going to need your protection. If you don't, she's going to be walker bait sooner than you think."

That's when Beth decided she didn't want to be in that room any longer.

Maggie's face reddened. "Who do you think you are, coming in here and actin' like you know my family? Like you know me? Beth isn't ready for this. She can't handle being out there. She's good and innocent, dammit. She's a child. It's be like tossin' one of the young out there and ringing the dinner bell, for Christ's sake."

"Maggie, you're being unreasonable." Glenn said, his head shaking at his wife's easy dismissing of whatever they were so rudely talking about.

"Beth is a member of this group as well." Thank you, Rick. "She handled herself out there with Daryl for two weeks before anything happened. I don't see a good reason to not allow her the same duties as everyone else. Surely she's picked up some form of strategy for killing walkers."

Maggie through her hands out, making everyone jump a bit. "Look at her!" She yelled, and Beth stared down every single person who followed her instruction. "She can't handle this! She's got one job, and one job only. Takin' care of Judith. We know it, she knows it. Beth doesn't need to step out of the safety of this fence, and if she does, she'll be killed. It's that simple. She can't manage it like we can."

"I just shot an arrow through Bryan." Maggie's eyes widened, along with quite a few other's in the gathering of people. "Three times."

Beth stood awkwardly as everyone around her began to shift uncomfortably, all of their minds thinking that Beth had just gone insane and killed a guy. Maybe she should have. Maybe that was the only damn way for people to see her as anything but a child here. Maybe then Maggie wouldn't still associate her for who she was at their farm.

"He's not dead or nothin'. He was trying to kill Daryl, so I..." She looked down at her feet, then back up at her sister. "I shot him through the shin, thigh, and hand. Bulls eye shots that I took from ten to fifteen feet away, all in a matter of seconds." Beth pointed at the door that she had walked in through. "He's out there right now, and that's on me. I get that." She lowered her hand, her eyes looking around at familiar and unfamiliar faces surrounding her. "I didn't want to do it, but if I didn't, Daryl would be dead, and probably me too. I can live with hurting him if it saved lives, and that's not a child's way of thinkin'."

Michonne looked at Beth with that same impressed look, then turned to Maggie. Maggie was currently at war with herself, staring down the girl she thought she knew as her sister, but their was something so incredibly different now. They were strangers to each other. "I can't lose you." Maggie said, tears escaping down her reddened cheeks.

"You can't keep me safe forever. You step outside, you risk your life. You take a drink of water, a bite of food, you risk your life. Every moment now, you don't have a choice. The only thing you can choose it what you're riskin' it for." Beth told Maggie. "A wise man once said that, and I don't think I've ever heard more accurate words."

The words of Hershel coming out of his daughters mouth sealed the deal, not a damn person in the room could deny that. Maggie nodded furiously, rushing forward to take Beth into her arms. "I can't believe I'm letting you do this." She whispered.

"I still don't know what 'this' is." Beth said, and the group laughed slightly.

"We need you to go on a run with Bob, Rick, Michonne, and Erica tomorrow. There's medical supplies that you should know about, stuff only daddy knew could help, but I know he told you most of his secrets." Maggie explained.

Beth smiled sadly, then grasped her sisters hand. "Of course I will go. What time we leavin'?" She questioned.

"A little after Dawn." Rick answered.

Glenn stepped forward. "I'll wake you up." He said, letting her know she didn't need to worry about somehow managing it on her own.

"I'll be ready." Beth glanced at Carol. "Even though a part of me is saying leave him out there, it ain't right. He's just laid out on the ground out there, and I have to go and get Daryl some bandages. If it's not too much-"

Carol waved her off. "Of course. Go on. I'll clean him up." She said with a smile, then proceeded to walk out of the door while Beth went in the other direction. That entire conversation had taken quite the turn, and Beth was ecstatic that were all realizing she wasn't just some baby in a woman's body.

Beth walked into the dimly lit showers, her eyes searching for a beat up man in a vest with angel wings. "Daryl?" She called out.

"Yea." He responded, and Beth found him sitting on a bench near the back. She hurried to him, alcohol, a cloth, and a few bandages in hand. She stood before him in all her glory, looking down at him with complete and utter disapproval. "You didn't eat your food." He said.

She laughed, pouring some of the alcohol on the rag. "A little difficult when two grown men are throwing punches three feet away." Her hand went under his chin, lightly pulling up so that she could see where the cuts were. She wiped the spots as if he were going to break beneath her, and Daryl wanted to chuckle. He'd had an arrow through his side, fought off dozens of zombies, bashed in a hundred skulls, and here he was, having some cuts from a quick fight being tended to by an eighteen year old girl who he kept finding himself drawn to.

"I know you weren't going to fight him." Beth said, making Daryl look up at her. "I heard you tellin' him to back off, and he just wouldn't listen."

"You shouldn't have jumped in." He said, and Beth felt like scoffing at his pride.

She settled instead for rolling her eyes. "Just 'cause you think you're a bad ass doesn't mean you can't get hurt." Was she just supposed to let him get beat up while she stood watching?

"You could'a got hurt."

Beth looked down at him, and she saw that he was still checking her to make sure she wasn't harmed. It made her pulse race a little bit. She smiled, reaching for a bandage. "He was in the military for four years. That's why I jumped in. I wasn't doubting you or anythin', but from where I stood, he was going to kick your teeth in." Lifting her hands, she placed the bandage on his cheek. "And I'd rather you keep them."

Daryl looked away from her then. He wasn't good in situations like this. The cute, flirty thing. Daryl was good at being an asshole, he was good at shooting an arrow through a walker from 100 yards away, and hell, he was good at drinking at all the wrong times. Flirting just didn't come with the package.

"Did you know he had a gun?" He asked after a few moments of what Beth thought was going to be perpetual silence.

She sighed, leaning down to pick up another bandage. "Yes."

"Why the hell would you step in, Beth? You could have gotten shot. He could have killed you right there, and that would have been it. What if... What..." His voice trailed off as his mind began to form the possibility, proving too much for him to handle. The thought of her dying to protect him... His stomach was beginning to hurt even more and he felt as if he was going to be sick.

She knelt down in front of him, her smile on those perfect lips. "You saved me, Daryl. Do you honestly think I was just going to sit there and watch him beat you to death because of the chance of him pulling his gun?" Her hands were on his thighs, and Daryl could hardly think coherently. He settled for gruffly moving his legs so that her hands fell off. Beth looked at him with hurt, but hid it and stood back up.

He opened his mouth again, and Beth almost sighed before the words even came out. Of course it was going to be something about how she should have let him die, and to not be stupid. Why couldn't he just allow her to stand up for herself?

"Thanks."

What? Beth looked into the eyes of the man sitting before her, not sure she heard the words correctly. "What?" She asked.

"You ain't gonna make me say it again. Hard 'nough getting' it out the first time." He told her with a small smirk, and Beth still watched him with her jaw hanging.

Beth stepped back. "In my two years knowin' ya, not a damn time have I heard you spit those words out." Daryl shook his head lightly, not giving her a worded response. "What changed your mind?" Daryl's eyes shot up to her own, and Beth held a smile. "I didn't exactly get an answer the first time I asked that." Daryl looked down with a small grin. "Fine, another time. But, don't doubt my memory, Daryl Dixon. That'll be the last thing you doubt about me." She told him, and Daryl mumbled something almost inaudible.

"We done here?" He asked. Beth nodded after a few seconds, and he sat up. She saw him grimace. Before he could get any further, Beth had her hands on both of his arms, pushing him back down.

"Lift up your shirt." She told him, and when his eyebrows raised, she gave him a serious look. "Lift your stupid shirt." He did, reluctantly, lift his shirt, finding a rather large purple bruise with broken red skin in the middle, blood wiped along the top. "Jesus." Beth gasped, but quickly regained her focus and grasped the buttons on his shirt.

"What are y-"

"You're the biggest idiot I have ever known." Daryl looked taken back by her comment, but Beth didn't give a damn. "Seriously. You could have internal bleeding, Daryl. You're going to let me do what I can, and you're going to listen to me when I tell you to stay rested." He didn't respond, and Beth stopped. "Promise me. This isn't a small matter anymore."

Daryl nodded a little bit, feeling weird with following someone's orders.

"If it is internal, we'll know when you-"

Daryl looked away. "This ain't the first time." He told Beth, and she looked away from him. Of course it wasn't. He hadn't exactly had the sweetest childhood.

She nodded, gently letting her fingers glide across the swollen skin. "Let me know if you find any blood in your urine of stool, alright? If you do, we might need to get you some medicine to make your blood clot, and worst scenario, we do a blood transfusion." She said, watching intently at the reaction his muscles gave to her fingers.

"It ain't that bad, girl." Daryl dismissed the thought, and Beth shook her head.

"You're gonna end up getting' yourself killed. Jus', take it easy. I know if I tell you to lay down like you should, you ain't gonna listen, so just try and keep out of harms way or strenuous activity. And you ain't goin' on the run tomorrow." Beth said.

"Run?" Daryl asked, his eyebrows rising. "What run?"

Beth put his shirt down, stepping away. "We're goin' on a run to get some medical supplies. Maggie-"

"Wait, you're goin'? And I'm not? Why the hell didn't anyone even tell me?" Daryl asked, starting to stand up quickly, but Beth stood in front of him, keeping him from moving any further. "Move outta my damn way."

"No, you're just hurting yourself more. You can't go on that run anyway, so why does it matter?" She asked him, pushing him back against the cool wall.

Daryl turned his head, painfully aware of Beth's close proximity. "You can't go out there alone." He said in a deep raspy voice, and when Beth mentioned who else was going, Daryl shook his head. "Nah, they can't keep you safe. I gotta be there, gotta make sure you come back." He told her, glancing quickly to her eyes then away again.

Beth smiled, sitting beside him on the bench. "All you gotta worry about it getting' yourself better. I'll be fine. I been practicing with Michonne a lot, and it's helped me." Her hand found his, wrapping them together as she beamed brightly. "I just need to know that when I come back, you'll still be alive."

Both of their gazes were on their entwined hands, and Daryl licked his lips. "I don't like it."

"It's gonna happen with or without your permission, Mr. Dixon." Beth told him, biting her lip and trying not to get red. He was so close. They're hands were already so intimately close and it was killing her inside. She didn't know what she wanted to do, but it sure as hell had nothing to do with sitting there and talking to him.

Daryl turned his head, moving his hand from hers. "You should get some sleep, Beth."

She nodded, getting up from the bench and walking away before the tears could form. The door to the showers was completely closed before she allowed the first drop to fall, only to find it was followed by many others.

"What am I doing?"

Everything was deathly quiet around her as she slept, even with all of the tents outside of her own being filled with people sleeping. She didn't hear snores or the slightest peep, and it scared her more than if she did. All these people around and not a single kid whining or baby crying? It was illogical.

Her eyes opened on their own accord, and she sat up. Beth had always been afraid of being alone whenever she was younger, always dependent upon someone else. Maggie had been the strong reliable one, the one everyone thought would do great things while Beth hid in a corner, hiding from her sisters shadow. But, when the farm got overrun, Beth had to step up. No one else was going to hold her hand and let her cry about her insecurities anymore. Those days were over.

Yet, here she was again, afraid of everything and nothing at the same time. She felt like a child once again, curled up in the covers so that the monsters outside couldn't get in. But, the monsters that she now knew to be a reality wouldn't be stopped by silent prayers and covers.

Beth unzipped the end of her tent after careful consideration, but ultimately decided it would be fine since there were enough people around that someone would help her if need be. A breeze blew passed her, and she crawled out onto the linoleum floor. Her eyes searched for any kind of movement, but found that each tent was closed up tightly and no one was wandering about. Strange.

Small little footsteps echoed throughout the room as she walked to the door that lead outside, and there she saw four tents set up along side the wall. One of them belonging to Daryl. The only problem was that she didn't know which one.

"Beth." Someone whispered.

Her head spun around, looking through all of the trees for any sign of another human being. But, her eyes found nothing other than woods and camp supplies. The wind picked up and she swore it felt like hands caressing her arms roughly.

She pulled up her sweater and pursued forward, walking passed the tents. All she wanted now was to find Daryl and just sit with him, even if he didn't want her to. At this point, she didn't care if she was annoying him. Her stomach was churning and her mind was racing. She didn't feel safe. In fact, she felt like someone was going to grab her at any point. What if someone had followed them back? What would they do then?

Right on cue, a hand wrapped around Beth's mouth, blocking her screams from spreading throughout the distance.

"Found you." A voice said, and Beth's body wracked with tremors. Mark.

But, he was dead. Daryl killed him. She had seen his body in the hallway. He spoke no more as he drug her off through the yard, passed the tents and the building. Beth was watching everything she knew disappear as they came closer to the fence. Why couldn't they just leave her alone?

"I have a surprise for you." The man said with gruesome delight, and as Beth turned her head to see what he meant, more screams came out of her mouth, along with violent tears that she was unable to control. Along the fence were bloody body parts, and in the center were three heads. Judith, Maggie... And Daryl.

She thrashed in the man's grasp, throwing her body in every direction to try and get out of his grip, but he continued to hold onto her. "Guess there's nothin' for you to go back to." Mark said from right beside her ear, and Beth's legs gave out from beneath her. The couldn't handle it anymore. She felt everything she had a grip on slipping from her grasp and fading off into oblivion. Nothing would ever be the same. She might as well die now, might as well just give up.

The wind blew again as the three heads wobbled on the fence, their expressions of horror forever scarring Beth's brain.

Her eyes flew open as she yanked herself out of her nightmare, tears streaming down her cheek and her mouth taking in big gulps of air. A dream.

She knew now that it had all been some horrible situation her mind came up with, but that didn't stop her from unzipping the tent once more, throwing herself out and jetting passed the small group of people talking around a lantern and women changing her baby in the moonlight from a window.

Her body was shaking when she shoved out of the door, eyes desperately seeking out a certain person. She saw him in the distance with three others, two of which were Rick and Carl, and the other a women Beth had barely met. She believed her name was Erica.

She didn't know what to do now that she had found him. The wind blew her hair, and the dream came back to her. She needed to go after him, needed to tell Daryl everything that happened to her and talk to him. Basically she just needed to be near him somehow. Her eyes glanced to the tents around her, and she saw one that was open, weapons laying around the inside and a dirty leather jacket lying half inside, half out.

The four people in the distance never turned around to notice her, so Beth walked forward, stepping into his tent. "Why am I even doing this?" She asked as she looked around. Daryl would be pissed, and she would be embarrassed, and no one would be happy. But, she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep otherwise, and if she was being honest, Beth hadn't been able to really sleep since she got there. Something about being around Daryl just filled her with relief.

Was it selfish for her to be there in his tent? Maybe. Was it wrong? Definitely.

Yet, she felt her cares going away as she lay down, bringing the covers up around her and his scent bombarded her nose. She sighed, sleep finally coming to her peacefully.

–

"I think I'm going to head on back and get a few hours in." Erica said, looking at the people near her.

"Me too." Daryl said.

Rick nodded. "Sorry about not mentioning the run. Maggie asked us not to, and I guess I didn't think much of it considering you were staying here anyway to take out the walkers on the East gate."

"Yea, you're right." Daryl said, but only as an attempt to end the conversation so he could go and sleep. The meds Beth gave him were making him tired and he knew he must have been swaying. He turned away from the group, beginning to walk. Erica waved goodbye, then ran to catch up with the redneck. He gave her a once over, then continued his journey.

She came closer with each step, causing an air of uncomfortableness. "You're a pretty good shot." She spoke, breaking the silence. Daryl only nodded, not even looking in her direction. "I've never been good with a bow, so I have pretty high respect for people who do." She mused, a smile on her lips.

"Been practicin' a while, I guess." He brushed off her compliment as they came closer to the tents. The girl quickly turned before they got too close, pulling on Daryl's arm as she did. "What're you doin'?"

Her only response was her throwing herself forward, catching his lips on her own. Her fingernails ran up his back, but he pushed her off as gently as he could while still trying to be forceful. Her lips were wet and parted, but her face was confused and hurt. Daryl didn't like hurting people, but there was no way in hell he was going to allow her to continue.

Her grabbed the strap of the Horton. "I dunno what you thought, but-"

The woman quickly regained her control, sauntering forward. "Look, there's not a whole lot of choices in this world anymore, and I get that it's not the best time to pursue relationships, so I'm going to offer you a deal." She said smiling as if she knew her deal was sweeter than sugar. "We do this, we enjoy it, and if you want to do it again, we can. But, no feelings or emotions. Just rough and quick. Something easy." She said, her eyebrows lifting suggestively.

That was her deal.

At one point in his life, Daryl would have taken her up on it, pushing her up against a wall and getting it over with. He used to be a man with low standards and morals. But, now anytime he thought of being with a woman in that way, only one came to mind, and Erica wasn't her. He wasn't about to screw some girl who didn't even care for him when the woman he wanted was sound asleep in her tent inside.

"I can't." He told her.

She laughed. "Of course you can, just come here. I'll help you." She said, her hands sliding up his muscular arms. Daryl yanked away, suddenly feeling like he didn't know what to do. The woman didn't want to take no for an answer, he could see it in her eyes.

He stepped away. "You jus' go on back to your tent, girl. I'm tired, I ain't gonna do this with you." Daryl said, and the girl looked taken aback, as if she wasn't used to being told no. But, he didn't regret it a second, especially not when he went to go open his tent up and saw blond hair spread out all over his pillow and long legs coming out from underneath the blanket.

If he had taken that girl up on her offer and brought her into his tent, then saw Beth...

He couldn't even imagine it. What if Beth had woken up to see it? He had never been so relieved from a decision in his life.

Daryl took a minute just looking at her face, seeing how peaceful she looked while sleeping. As if she was in a completely different world from the one they were living in. Her legs were bare, hanging out of the end of his blue blanket. God, the thoughts of her having those things wrapped around him... Daryl chastised himself quickly. He can't be thinking like that. Especially not while she was sleeping. It wasn't right.

But he couldn't just leave her in his tent, could he? It would cause everyone to freak out, and no doubt Maggie would stick a bullet in his head.

"Beth." He whispered, nudging her shoulder. She rolled over, gently, her eyes opening up to him and a smile spread out on her pink lips. His mind lost it's focus for a second, and he swallowed dryly. "Uh." He shook his head, getting rid of the impure thoughts that were filling him up. "You gotta go back to your tent." He said with regret, and Beth's eyes opened wider, realizing where she was.

"I had a nightmare." She said quickly, pushing herself up on her elbows. "I'm so sorry, it's just... You, Maggie, Judith... You were all dead. Strung up on the fence like a chicken head caught in the wire." She looked up at him, her cheeks turned red and her eyes watering. "One of the men had grabbed me. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't stay in that tent by myself." She whispered, looking at him with that damn face. Daryl couldn't just toss her out like a dog in the cold when he knew she was hurting.

He sat on his blanket, trying to figure out what he could do, when it hit him. "Alright. How's about I sit with you in your tent while you go on back to sleep?" He asked, and Beth nodded, getting up and stepping out of the tent.

They walked in together, and Daryl looked around to make sure no one saw as he got into her tent, since that would defeat the purpose of them ever leaving his. He sat at the end with his legs flat in front of him while she got under the covers. "You're too good to me, Daryl Dixon." Beth said, looking down at him.

Daryl let out a chuckle as he scratched the back of his neck. "Jus' go back to sleep." He told her, looking away to hide his smile.

Beth rolled her eyes, falling over on her back. She held her hand above her, looking at the ring Daryl had brought to her. It was probably the closest thing to her own marriage ring that she was ever gonna get, and she decided it was more than most people in the world were going to get. At least until this was all over.

"You wanna sing?"

Her eyes shifted to the blue pair at the end of her tent. "Hmm?"

Daryl looked away for a second, then looked back. "I was wonderin' if you wanted to sing. I mean, I know you like to do that, and since you ain't exactly goin' to sleep, I thought I should ask." He licked his lips. "Wouldn't mind if you wanted to."

So, she did. She sang him a tune until she saw his eyelids began to fall, and soon he himself was sleeping up against the side of her tent that was against the wall. Beth allowed herself to fall into the pit of darkness for the third time that night, it coming easier than ever before when she knew that Daryl was just a few short feet away from her.

–

Daryl awoke to a throat clearing. Glenn stood a few short feet away, his head poking through the end of the tent. "Yea?" Daryl asked, and Glenn just looked back at him with bewildered eyes. The night started to come back to him, and Daryl's eyes quickly looked down, seeing Beth wrapped in the blanket, her upper body laid over his legs and head on his thighs.

_Well, fuck._

**I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think and if you want this to be more than just a few chapters. Also, leave me what you think will happen in the season finale! I loooovvvee trying to guess. Or, you can talk to me about it on my tumblr- sleepingawaytheday**

**Have a wonderful day, and enjoy your Bethyl fanfiction!**


	3. Chapter 3-My Job Now

**Sorry it's taken me so long to update! I hope this makes up for it, and if not, let me know!**

He could feel her small hands scorching his thighs beside where her flushed cheeks were pressed up against his pants. And that _smell. _Whatever god damn shampoo she used, it flooded his nostrils, placing him in some alternate universe where he was surrounded by honey and roses. It was becoming difficult to think. He needed to get out.

Without a word to the man lingering in the opening of the tent, Daryl lifted her up from beneath her arms and placed her back on the cushion, careful to not wake her. She stirred on the thin mattress, rolling over and mumbling something in her sleep. "Daryl," he managed to make out, and Glenn's suspicion became conspicuous. The redneck raced out of the tent in the manliest way he could manage and burst out of the building, mouth agape like a fish as he greedily sucked in fresh air.

He was unwilling to spare another glance for the man who found him in the most vulnerable and questionable position, which seemed to fuel Glenn's hunch of what had went on the night prior.

"Daryl!" Glenn exclaimed after him once he stepped through the door and out of the building. Daryl spun around, his chest throbbing uncontrollably. "Are we gonna talk about this?"

Daryl shrugged his shoulders, building up his wall of an artificial lack of emotion. "Ain't nothin' to talk about." Daryl disputed, being overwhelmed with guilt. He hadn't really done anything wrong, but it was understandable if Glenn thought he did. Hell, he was beginning to believe he'd practically slept with her himself.

"Really? Because you just came out of Beth Greene's tent. That's definitely a good reason for conversation." Glenn was standing tall a few feet away, his eyes lit up audaciously. "I don't know what's going on with you two-"

Daryl scoffed, gripping his hand to tighten it on the Horton as had become a habit of his when he was getting frustrated, until he realized that it wasn't with him. He had left it in the opening of his tent. He was livid for a moment, considering all options of being attacked or being unable to protect Beth, til' he began to think. Something took a toll on him with the revelation that he had slept without it for the first time since the apocalypse began, and even though he tried to tack the reasoning to basically anything else, he knew it had more than a lot to do with the bucket of astonishment that was Beth Greene.

"Nothin's goin' on 'tween us." He clarified, but Glenn didn't look convinced. Out of the corner of his eye, Daryl could see some walker's getting restless along the fence, and he decided to focus on that to get his mind off of how the blond had just been spread out over his lower half. "Damn things been gettin' worse."

His tries came to a halt. "Don't change the subject." Glenn proclaimed with an exasperated sigh, holding his view on the matter. Any accusation in his voice had slipped through.

The kid had changed so much in the last year. No way in hell he would have been standing up to Daryl as he was now. If they weren't in some sort of argument right now, Daryl might have expressed his opinion.

"She had a nightmare." The rough looking redneck said, putting his hand on his side. The pain began to seep through his worry and confusion, and it was coming in strong.

This actually made Glenn blink hard. It would have been more credible for Daryl to have been in the tent for sexual reasons than for him to be doing it out of the goodness of his heart. "And you're suddenly the defender of dreams for pretty nineteen year old's?"

"She's eighteen." Daryl easily corrected, then realized that really wasn't helping his case. "And I saved her, jack ass." He declared, huffing out a big breath before trying to explain his and Beth's complicated relationship to the Korean kid before him. "And for whatever reason, she thinks that I can keep her from harm even in her sleep." He was shaking his head when Glenn decided to challenge him with another question.

Glenn pondered on this for a moment before responding a bit apprehensively. "So, you're saying she sleeps better when you're with her?" He wasn't trying to be patronizing and disbelieving, but God, he was bordering on it like a damn tight-rope walker.

His side was now causing him to slouch a little. The pain was a hundred times worse than it had been a day before, and now all of the tissue around the wound was swollen and sore. "Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'." Daryl bit back a little bit more harshly than he had intended.

Glenn's surprise at the roughness in the other man faded slightly when he recalled what he had gone through the day before, rightfully placing the blame on the pain that he must be going through. "Do you think you can?" The guy wasn't asking as a curious group member anymore, but as a concerned brother in-law. "Do you think you can keep her safe?" Daryl saw the ineluctable fear that was icing his demeanor, his hands twitching slightly as they spoke of Beth's safety. Glenn had dug himself in deep with the Greene family, and Daryl couldn't even hold it against the guy. He was close to doing the same.

He didn't answer this time because he wasn't sure. Of course he wanted to keep her safe, that had become second nature for him. But honestly, he didn't know if he could. That's what scared him so much about her leaving, if he wasn't sure he could keep her from hazards then the others in the group sure as hell can't. "I want to go on that run." He concluded, brushing passed Glenn and knocking his arm against the other man's, an immature way of showing his masculinity.

"Daryl, you know you can't." Glenn responded sympathetically.

"I don't give a damn about some scrapes and bruises. I'm going." He took a thick, hulking step towards his tent when a small hand grabbed his bicep. It wasn't Glenn's, he knew that, so he turned with caution, only to be caught in a staring match with even bluer eyes.

"Why are you so hard headed?" Beth asked, her hand still on his arm. Her thin shirt was hanging off of her right shoulder and her face was still smooth and blushed from her sleep. He caught himself staring and shook her off, but she feigned strength. "You can't go, so stop making Glenn feel sorry for tellin' your stubborn ass 'no'. You know I would like you to, but you can't. You're hurt and you need to sit down and shut up so you can heal."

Glenn looked at her in a new light now. Beth was handling Daryl Dixon, a man twice her size and twenty years her senior like a mother would a child, keeping him in his place, and he was pretty sure Daryl was going to end up letting her, even if he put up a bit of a fight first. He left them then, feeling as if he had meddled in enough of their business for the day.

"I'm goin' on that damn run and there ain't a thing you can do to stop me." He spat, tearing his arm from her grasp and unzipping the door to his tent.

"Daryl!" She stomped towards him rapaciously and stood behind him, hands on her hips. "For once in your dumb redneck life, put yourself before others!"

He grabbed his jacket and Horton before turning back to her in a rapid motion, leaving her mind spinning from his speed and the view of his muscles straining against his sleeveless shirt. "I can't let you go out there alone. You can hardly sleep by yourself! How the hell am I supposed to trust you to come back without a scratch?"

"I don't give a damn what state I return in, you need to take care of yourself before you take care of me." He wanted to speak, but she didn't let him. "Besides, with your side like that, you're more likely to attract walkers. Ever think'a that?"

He hadn't, but he wasn't going to let her know that. "And you're more likely to die without me!"

"I don't know why you care so much. I'm the weakest person in the group, why do you want to risk yourself for someone like me?" Beth wasn't actually sure if she wanted him to answer that, or if she was just speaking her mind without thinking. She liked that he cared, it just didn't make any sense. He hadn't given a damn about her til' the night they burnt down that old house with moonshine. "I'm not worth anything."

"Don't." The thought of her being reckless out there while he sat in bed pampering himself made him sick to his stomach, that's why. He didn't know the reason, he just knew that there was this blood curdling fear that ripped him up inside at the thought of her being hurt.

Beth smiled, shaking her head pathetically. "You protect so many people, Daryl. You're a hero."

His heart twinged at the word. Not many people had said anything like that to him before, and none said it with the sincerity that she did. It almost made him believe it. But, then Sofia and Merle came to mind. People he couldn't save. Zach. Hershel. People in his life before the world went to shit. "Nah. You're the one who sings and makes people feel like they gotta home to come to."

"Yes, you are. And that ain't a necessity. My singing isn't gonna keep people alive like you do." She took a step towards him, and looked down as her hand reached out for his. He let her take his fingers and spread her own softly out along his, measuring the difference between the lengths. Daryl couldn't help but watch her face as she concentrated on the tingles that reverberated from the mere contact. "You help people. You do it so much that you don't even realize it anymore." Her eyes cast towards his, and the intensity made him take the smallest of steps back. She was looking at him with adoration, making him fight with himself more than ever to believe that he didn't feel something for her. "You're good."

He found himself wanting to touch her face. To do something. He had never wanted to just hold a woman before, but right now, that would be enough for him. In fact, if he could hold Beth and keep her from going out in the world on that run today, he'd do it. Screw what anyone at the camp had to say, what Maggie would do. He couldn't have anyone else dying, and he sure as hell couldn't handle Beth being killed.

"Beth, you ready?" Bob asked while looking out of the door. Their hands dropped away from each other, and Beth spun with a bright smile on her face.

"Be there in a moment!" She called, then looked at Daryl. He was staring at her as if he was memorizing her face in every detail. "I'll be back, safe and sound." Balancing on the balls of her feet, she stood up to give him a kiss on the cheek, to which his entire body became rigid. She lingered for a moment, her pink plush lips pressed against the coarse hair on his cheek, before dropping back down and yanking his leather jacket from his unprepared fingertips. He looked at her with his eyebrows furrowed and his jaw dropped as she backed away. "It's gettin' pretty cold out, isn't it?" She asked tauntingly, then disappeared into building.

He stood there for a good moment before realizing that it was her way of promising her return, taking one of his most important belongings so that she had a reason to come back. That, and she now thought she took away his chance of going on the run because he wouldn't leave without his jacket since, like she said, it was gettin' cold out.

She was clever. When they had been on the farm, Daryl never even gave her a once over, and when she tried to off herself, he thought the group would have been better off without the weakness. Then, she started taking care of Lil' Asskicker, invoking a bit of reluctance on her part, but when he saw how well she did, how determined she was to put Judith's needs before her own, he came to a conclusion somewhere in his mind that she wasn't completely weak.

Then the Governor had attacked, making him and her leave together, and everything he had ever thought about her was lost as his everyday became filled with something new he learned about the youngest Greene girl. She didn't like killing stuff, ironic considering she had tried to do it to herself. Didn't eat much either, always tried to make sure he had more in his belly than she did. And she was respectful to the dead. With Beth around, they were just as comfortable in death as they should have been in life.

He had actually wanted to settle down with her in the home. Might not seem like much, but Daryl was an outdoors kind of guy. The fact that he didn't want to keep moving or sleep outside for the rest of their lives was a big deal. Even bigger that he wanted to stay their with her. If she hadn't been with him, there would have been no point in even going to that damn place. Looking back on it, he felt stupid and insecure. What if she had wanted to say no?

Then he heard a female scream pierce the air, instincts driving his body forward in a sprint, drawing back the crossbow as he ran.

…

Blood was gushing down Sasha's legs, pooling around her feet. The woman had screamed loud enough to leave a ringing in Beth's ears. For a moment, Beth thought she had just started her period in a violent manner, but the look in Sasha's eyes told her otherwise. She hadn't been attacked or anything, and as the possibilities ran through her head, Beth's eyes focused when she came to one conclusion. "Oh my god." She whispered before running to Sasha's side.

Daryl came barreling around the building as the others came running out, one hand on his hurt side. Beth held Daryl's jacket in front of Sasha's legs, shielding her from the gazes of everyone, then looked into the woman's eyes. "Sasha..."

Bob ran through the crowd, his hands automatically going to Sasha's face. "Sasha? What happened? Are you alright? Are you bit?"

Tears began to stream down the woman's face as she looked at her lover. Everyone had become quiet, but what came next really shook them to the core. Sasha gripped Bob's shoulder, shaking her head. "I lost the baby."

It was obvious that Bob had known just as much as everyone else about the life that Sasha was sure had been growing inside of her, but no one spoke a word of the child as Bob picked the woman up and carried her off inside. Maggie and Glenn held hands as the two faded away, and Beth glanced towards Daryl. He was walking steadily towards Maggie, and Beth knew he was going to propose taking Bob's place now that he was going to definitely stay with Sasha.

"I'm going." Glenn said quickly, giving Maggie a kiss and walking to where Beth stood by the car.

"You don't have to." Maggie interjected, looking at Beth. "I can go, right?"

Random voices in the group began to speak out, each one mentioning different variations of "I'll go" or "No, you have to stay here". They were getting too loud and Beth knew it was just a matter of time until someone drew attention. Daryl was getting damn well fed up.

"Everyone shut the hell up!" He announced, drawing some judgmental looks from parents holding their kids ears. "'Could've said fuck." He retorted, looking directly at them, drawing scoffs and disgusted expressions. For the most part, besides some of the parents telling their kids to not listen and to not say the new vocabulary words Daryl had offered up, everyone settled into the quiet. "We need to send someone out there. I-"

Glenn took a step forward then, cutting Daryl off. "I'm going." He said once more, this time with more certainty.

"I want to go." Carl said, stepping out of the crowd. Rick automatically shot that one down, and a few other guys raise their hands or took a step forward and announced their volunteering, but Maggie expressed that it was safer for members of the original group to go, save for Erica considering she had been working the watch duty basically since Maggie found her three weeks ago.

Beth walked up to Glenn and pulled him aside with Maggie to discuss what the plans were now, leaving the rest of the group to wander around and eventually go back inside. Rick was holding a bag with a small amount of supplies in case they got stuck over night, and he easily nodded in agreement to the new addition. Daryl looked from Glenn to Beth, wrath and fright and vexation all a strange mix on his face.

"We'll be back some time tonight, but if not, the latest will be tomorrow morning." Rick spoke, unknowingly stepping in the small amount of blood that now a puddle along the concrete. Beth cringed, biting her lip and looking away.

The wind blew her hair, and she pulled on Daryl's jacket before looking at him one more time.

Unlike before, he was watching at her. She could see the anxiety that had been on his face, and Beth smirked slightly when all of the signs finally pointed to the fact that... Daryl Dixon had been worried about her. _Daryl Dixon _had been _worried _about _her. _He had come running like his tail-end was on fire because he thought she was the one hurt, and she'd be damned if that didn't bring the slightest of smiles to her face.

His worry faded as he watched her there, wearing his jacket with pride. Of course, he should have been upset that she only had pride in the fact that she had stolen it, and now everyone knew, but he settled for amusement. Her small fingertips could barely be seen coming out of the sleeves, and the mid-section was much too baggy. Yet, he liked it better on her.

Glenn raised his eyebrows at Daryl, motioning towards Beth and his jacket, and the once easy smile on his lips melted into a glare, making Glenn laugh.

Everyone began to load into the vehicle, Rick driving, Michonne in the passenger seat, and Glenn, Beth, and Erica in the back. Maggie and Tyreese opened the gate, and Carol and Carl opened the second, waving as the car drove through. Beth looked out of the back window at Daryl who was watching their car disappear into the distance with squinted eyes.

…

"Beth," Glenn called, tearing Beth from her thoughts. She looked up to find that they had pulled into a parking lot that was relatively empty, stores lining the building. She knew instantly where they were, it was a little shopping mall her and her friends had traveled to on more than one occasion before the dead started walking. Everyone started to get out, but Glenn reached to grab her from exiting. She turned to look at him, and was surprised to find he looked concerned. "Is your head in the right place for this?"

Well, that took her a moment to comprehend. "Of course, why do you ask?"

Glenn scrutinized her for a bit longer, his eyebrows swinging together so close they almost touched. "Nevermind." He finally settled for saying even though it was obvious he had something on his mind.

They both climbed out of the car, seeing that the rest of the group had been waiting for them. "There something I need to know about?" Michonne whispered from beside Beth, making the girl damn near jump out of her own skin.

"Jesus! You're like a cat!" Beth rushed to say, then shook her head vigorously. "No, there's nothin'. At least, if there is, he ain't tellin' me." Beth said, her eyes going to where Glenn was now at the front of the group with Rick, discussing what their next move was.

Michonne accepted the response, but that didn't necessarily mean she accepted it as the truth. After that, they got into one of the many formations, picking off walkers one by one like a peculiar game of Wack-a-Mole. The sky was graying over, making it more and more difficult to keep up with time. Apparently, while Beth had been gone, nearly everyone's watch had either died, been given away, or stolen. It wasn't exactly a simple trip to the market anymore to pick one up, so they had to learn how to tell the hour by the sun. But with the clouds above, it could be 9am or 3pm.

Beth saw the JC Penny's entrance a couple dozen yards in front of them when the rain began to come down. At first, it was simply sprinkling, layering everyone's body with a thin sheet of icing that would serve to cause a shiver in everyone of their mouths, but before they knew it, it was raining cats and dogs. The struggle to get inside of the mall had never been stronger, and they huddled around the building as if a football team meeting had been called up against that saggy old brick building.

"You cold, Beth?" Rick asked. She didn't realize until he asked that she had been slouched over, teeth clanging irritably against each other.

Michonne's lips tilted into a grin, a sight that would have been utterly foreign just a month in a half before. "Not in that jacket, she isn't."

Beth's glare found the woman in an instant, and Michonne only let out a deep throaty laugh. Glenn doubled over in laughter, Rick even cracked a smile, and the little blond victim wallowed in mortification, but Erica was completely oblivious to the joke. "I don't get it." She repeated multiple times before someone finally got the energy to speak.

"Daryl let you take that?" Rick questioned, and Erica's ears perked up at the mention of Daryl's name. Beth tried not to allow her irritation to show.

She gripped the jacket, looking down at it fondly. "Nope, I stole this fair an' square."

"Great, she hangs out with Dixon for a few days and now she's a thief." Michonne retorted, earning yet another one of Beth's pathetic excuse of a death glare.

Erica laughed, despite her not truly wanting to. "Wanna know somethin' funny?" She didn't let them answer. "I tried to get with him last night, and I got pretty close, but I think that old man is wearin' out cause he told me he was too tired than proceeded to get in his damn tent."

What? Did this happen while she was sleeping in there? What did Erica mean that she "got pretty close"? What had they done while she was only a few feet away, sleeping soundly? The thoughts were grotesque, Daryl with his hands all over some woman who was more annoying than pins and needles.

"No way he even let you near him. Dixon's not the kind for intimacy." Michonne said, dismissing Erica's bogus tall tale.

She feigned a hurt pout, then nodded while Rick and Glenn worked on getting the door undone. "We kissed, and like I said, we would have gotten further if he hadn't had gotten so tired."

The group looked at Erica in disbelief, and Beth added a bit of resentment and passionate hatred. She was a pretty thing. Brown hair, curves and tanned skin. But she was conceited, pesky, and downright intolerable. Daryl wouldn't have laid a finger on her.

Yet, the more Erica went on, the more Beth was beginning to be drawn into the story. She spoke of lingering looks and even him mentioning something about teaching her how to shoot his Horton. That was what really set her off. Beth had been under the impression that him teaching her to track and hunt was sort of a milestone in their relationship, and yet it turns out he just did that for anyone with breast. Maybe she didn't know him as well as she thought.

"But, it was weird. When he left me to get in his tent, I swear I heard him talking to someone else in there!" Erica revealed, and now Beth knew there had to be some sort of truth to her story.

Glenn's eyes found Beth's, and they both coughed gently. Michonne looked between the two before letting her imagination run wild. Beth watched the gears turn in the woman's head and shook her own. "No ma'am! Don't you think like that! That's how rumors start!" Beth growled at her by her side, but was only answered with a sly grin on Michonne's lips.

"Maybe he just didn't want to sleep with ya'." Rick said, finally getting the door to the building unlatched. He plopped the pad-lock in his pocket and slid open the gate, letting them all go in around him.

Erica waited for all of about a millisecond before disregarding the notion with a swift flick of her hand. "Can't be that."

Beth let out a frustrated sigh from knowing that she was about to have to spend the night with this woman. Why did they even bring her? "It's gonna be a long day." Beth concluded, and everyone muttered their agreements as Erica went on, talking of egotistic and self conceited opinions that no one in particular cared for.

**...**

Everyone sat in silence at dinner that night, no one from the run had made it back yet, but the fear wasn't too high, since they already knew it was likely they wouldn't be back til' the morning. Still, Daryl was a little bit more ill-tempered than usual, replying to nearly everything with a snide comment. No one thought it was because he was trying to cope with not being able to protect Beth, but because he hadn't been able to go on the run. He was fine with them thinking that.

He got up, swaggering in his own way over to the bucket where they put their dishes and washed his off quickly, tossing it on the table and heading out to his watch. A wrongly placed foot let him know someone was behind him.

Maggie considered her next move as she made her way over to a now immobile Daryl, knowing he was fully aware she was near him anyway. His jaw twitched slightly, and she scratched the back of her neck before continuing. "I know you were in Beth's tent."

"Damn Korean's and their big mouths," he mumbled.

"Glenn didn't tell me, Daryl..." Maggie paused to let out an exasperated breath. "Carol did. I think she's a bit concerned, and I guess I am too. What are you tryna' do to Beth?" The girl inquired, and unlike Glenn, she was all full of accusations.

His mouth dropped for a moment before he could actually respond to her bold question. "Excuse me, sunshine. I ain't tryna' do nuthin' to her. Also, what's with all y'all makin' it your business what Beth is doin'? Girl's nearly nineteen. I don't think she needs her sister tellin' her what t'do anymore."

"She does when she's 'bout to be makin' a big mistake. You think you're good for her, Daryl? You think you can make her happy? Only reason she likes you is because you're older." Maggie shot back with a sour look on her face. "Girl doesn't know what she's doin'."

"Did I not just tell you ain't nothin' was goin' on?"

She laughed, rolling her eyes. "You think I don't see it? The way you are 'round her? If I didn't know better, I'd say somethin' happened between you two way before she got taken." She straightened up her shoulders and Daryl knew she was going in for the kill. Only one thing he knew she'd be willing to throw at him. "Besides, ain't you like fifty? Don't you know when a girl's too young?"

His pulse was beginning to race and his knuckles were aching to slam against something. What he really wanted to do was find some walker and beat his skull in until his fingers were saturated in his brains, but instead he put his anger to words. Girl chose the wrong time to come after him. His metaphorical panties were already in a bunch because Beth was gone, he sure as hell didn't need Maggie coming after him and yelling at him about his age. "Too young? The girl acts older than you, princess. You're the one with hearts in your eyes, falling head over heels and going all out on the romance wagon when people 'round you are droppin' like flies."

Maggie didn't seem too phased by this, her hands going to her hips and head tilting slightly. "Me and Glenn are married." Like that was an excuse. "I know you don't got no experience with love, but sometimes, it changes you. You gotta act out on it every once in a while. I have no regrets in the way I am with Glenn."

"Really? Not a single one? Hershel dies, separating you and Beth, and what do you do? You go out lookin' for your damn boyfriend like y'never even had a sister in the first place." Maggie's eyes were wide now, and soon enough, she was looking away from him. He could have left it there, but screw that. A month of searching for Beth without any help from her own damn sister needed to be addressed."Y'know what that _woman_ did? The one who you think is "too young"? She told me she wanted a drink, and was hell bent on havin' it. Was damn near eaten trying to get it, but when she finally did, girl couldn't even look at the bottle without fallin' apart 'cause your daddy wasn't there to tell her not to do it. She needed someone there for her. I ain't fit for heavy shit like that, but I was there." His words were like ice now and God he hoped they stung her.

"I couldn't have been there. You know that." She whispered fervently, her eyes darting to catch his gaze. "Don't make me feel guilty for somethin' I couldn't help! I was hurtin' too!" She was yelling now, filling the night air with her self-pity.

Was she really whining about herself? Daryl bit back his need to scream at the top of his lungs. "She made me look for you for days, constantly searching for some damn sign that you weren't walker food, only to find out that you weren't even lookin' for her in return." Shaking his head, he mindlessly touched his side where the bandages that Beth had placed on him were. "Idiot had so much faith in everything. Didn't consider even for a moment that we weren't gonna find all of you. Then she was the one who got taken." He kicked at the dirt now, his face getting heated with his rage. "Your eighteen year old sister gets taken a few miles away and you can't even go out on one search party to look for her!"

"I had to find Glenn first. I needed to know he was okay, Daryl!" She stopped ranting for a moment, then licked her lips and closed her eyes. "I couldn't look for Beth. I couldn't stand the thought of finding her as a walker or... Worse." Her voice was sick with grief. It was a strange insight to find that Maggie, this strong independent woman who he had been blindly following for a month turned out to be the exact opposite. She was unraveling before him and Daryl didn't enjoy what he was finding.

"Blood is thicker than water, sweetheart. And Beth is the only blood you got left."

The night became deathly quiet now, save for Maggie's heavy breathing. She was looking around her, desperately keeping her eyes on anything that wasn't him. Daryl thought the conversation was through, but apparently, the woman still had some things to say, not that he wanted to hear them. "I had to be the new leader now. Had to keep everyone safe."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was hard for his mind not to go to Merle. Hadn't he been placed in a similar situation? Deciding between searching for his brother or staying with this group? It seemed a little different, considering Merle was a tough son of a bitch and Beth was... Beth. But, if he had to make the choice between looking for some girl he loved and Merle, he liked to think he'd find Merle first.

_'Now brother, don't thinking things we both know you don't mean.'_

Merle's voice echoed in his mind, and he tried to shake the thoughts that came after, but he couldn't. Truth was, he had never had a women he loved, but the closest thing he had to it was Beth, and if he had been separated from Beth and Merle in the same way, he would have went after Beth. It had been a long time coming, but he couldn't imagine just leaving her out there. Merle had been a fighter, and in the end, Merle was the one to kill Merle. He knew what he was doing when he went to the Governor. But Beth...

"We all got jobs to do." Daryl spoke up, drawing Maggie's bewildered eyes that slowly relaxed. She was probably thinking that was his way of saying her understood where she was coming from. It wasn't. Still, he knew her daddy's voice must have been doing wonders in her head because she nearly began sobbing when he quoted him. "Yours was to look after your sister."

He knew was being harsh, bringing up Hershel, but hell, that girl needed to hear it. She had talked about Beth like she was a small child when Maggie was the one who had been acting irrationally. Not that he should be getting this defensive over the mention of him and Beth, since there was no him and Beth, but after spending two weeks alone with her, ain't no way he was just going to let Maggie talk like she knew everything about her sister when she clearly didn't know a damn thing.

Somewhere in the midst of his ranting, she began crying. It was weird how if it had been Beth standing there with tears pouring, his fingers would have itched to comfort her, yet with Maggie, he had no trouble walking away, leaving the girl to grieve for what bullshit mistakes she had made.

As he walked off, Daryl turned, calling back over his shoulder, "That ain't your job no more. Now, it's mine." And he sure as hell was going to do it.

…

The group that had went on the run returned the next morning, supplies in hand and only a few scratches. Sasha and Bob stayed in their tent throughout those days, and everyone else settled right inside of the building in the opening where they usually ate lunch. The space used to be clear, allowing people to walk around, but now in the middle were flames surrounded by bricks. They all sat around the fire while each person spoke of something that had happened to them the day before, tales of walkers and close calls, but Beth stayed silent, wrapped up in Daryl's jacket as she lounged in an old chair.

She had caught sight of him a few times, but her eyes quickly averted when she realized he saw her. It was a gloomy contrast from the day before when she had left. He had half expected her to come running up and embrace him when they returned, yet instead she just took to avoiding him.

One time, he tried to come and talk to her, but she rushed passed, leaving him with a puzzled expression and a slightly twisted aching in his chest.

"She's been acting like that ever since we got back. Not sure what's going on." Glenn commented, his arms wrapped around Maggie. The older sister opened her mouth to speak, but quickly bit back whatever she was about to say. He definitely was alright with her new found filter.

Daryl left the couple, opening the door that lead out of the building. He only had to search for a minute before blond hair caught his eye, whisking carelessly in the wind. She was still bundled up in his leather jacket, and he took off in a strut towards her.

Beth stood, staring out into the distance at the walkers near the fence. Her fingers were playing absentmindedly with the ring on her finger, and fresh blood was filling her mouth with copper from the strength at which she bit her lip.

"Ain't nice to avoid people." A southern voice spoke, making Beth turn around. She looked a bit frightened, and Daryl's smirk dropped as he picked up the pace, coming to a stop in front of her. "What's wrong?"

That was a loaded question in the world today, but he knew she would understand what he meant. The girl hesitantly looked over his shoulder as she breathed out white steam from the cold, and he knew she certainly wasn't telling him something. He had began thinking that maybe it was a bad idea to let her go off with Erica, considering what had happened between the two.

Beth snuggled herself even further into the jacket, making it hard for Daryl to raise his voice and ask what the hell was going on. Before he gained the courage, she spoke up. "I'm sorry."

Well, that was unexpected. He looked at her, then looked away, then looked back. He was fidgeting. What? "Sorry for what?"

He almost didn't see her lift the jacket, but when he did, he began to laugh and all of his suspicion of Erica blew away with the breeze. He laughed so hard, his eyes were unable to remain open and he grabbed his sides to keep them from splitting. Beth was deeply confused, for on the arm of the sleeve was a big tear that had been made while she was wearing it. "Why are you laughing?" Beth questioned, unable to hide uncertainty.

Daryl laughed a bit more, than shook his head. "Damn girl, you nearly gave me a heart attack! I thought you had been attacked or somethin', or maybe you was 'bout to tell me you was leavin'." He chuckled again, not fully aware of what he had just admitted. "I don't give a damn 'bout that jacket. If anything, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth from the shit I been through with it."

She still gawked at him, her finger touching the torn cloth.

"'Sides, that can just been sewn up." He insisted, and Beth nodded vigorously.

"Of course, yeah. I'll give it back to you after I sew it up. Especially with this winter coming in." The girl was speaking quickly, gesturing nervously to the world around her and he had to fight the smile from invading his usually stoic lips.

Daryl took another look at her, lips red and skin pale. Her teeth were chattering, and she looked small and delicate in his jacket. "Nah, you keep it."

The wind picked up, carrying her gasp along before it could reach his ears. "I can't do that, Daryl. You don't have another one," her fingernails lifted, quickly tapping his bare arm. "And all your sleeves are kind of otherwise nonexistent."

They stood there for a moment, her close proximity making his mind a little foggy with an emotion he wasn't used to and therefor could not accurately determine. Her hair was flapping in the breeze, showing off the creamy skin of her neck. He hadn't ever cared about women in a way where he was literally afraid to be near them, but hell. Beth was bringing out a lot of his "first".

On the other hand, Beth was experiencing the opposite. She wanted to be near him, to be able to touch him in random affection, even as a friend, without fear of instant rejection. Daryl was so closed off and she was afraid he would run off. Honestly, she knew he would. That was the kind of person Daryl Dixon was. Couldn't handle all of the emotions, and so that's why she settled for a kind smile even though her traitorous mind was reeling with the possibilities of what could happen between them.

Daryl watched her smile back at him, knowing that he was making it incredibly awkward by not speaking, she wasn't calling him out on it and knew it was a needed moment for him to just... Catch a breath. She was wise, but she was so young. She couldn't even legally drink yet. And just like that, his mind traveled to what Maggie had said. All that stuff about his age really got to him, much to his chagrin.

He rubbed his finger along the jagged tear, examining the tear before letting the material drop from his callused fingers. "I want you to have it. Looks better on you anyhow."

Her heart beat strong enough to where it was thundering in her ears, and she felt her face burning as if she had shoved it in a fire. Right when she had settled on being friendly and simple, he had to go and say something even more simple, as Daryl does, and cause some sort of ruckus in her heart. He was just a simple redneck, and she was just a simple farmer's daughter. They didn't make sense, yet they were the cliché couple. Or was she just over thinking it all?

"I found Judy some clothes." Her voice lit up a little when she spoke Asskicker's name, and he smiled. She really was the girl's mom, even if Carol was takin' care of her a bit more now. Beth was her momma. "There was this small outlet mall that didn't have too many walkers, I think it might have more jackets." He didn't speak, letting her finish because she still had her mouth open, and was contemplating how to say what she needed to. "I-I could go with you, if you wanted. We could go on a run or somethin'. Just us. Or, if you want some of the others to come, like Michonne or Gle-"

"My side ain't botherin' me too much, but I know you ain't gonna say yes if I say tomorrow, so I'll let you decide." It was that easy? Beth thought she was going to be told no almost automatically.

She nodded. "Alright." She began walking, and he followed her. "Did you see all of the supplies we got? It was nearly enough to last us through the rest of winter."

"Yea, I saw." His words trailed of near the end, his eyes darting to the left of Beth. "Move!" He yelled, pulling his knife out of it's sheath and sprinting around her to stab into the skull of a walker who had been way too close to Beth for comfort. His knife slid easily out of the corpse's head, bringing out a brown goo with it, which Daryl flung most of it off. "How the hell did it get in here?" He questioned, and Beth trailed behind him as he took off running in the direction it had come from.

They ran through the first fence which had been stupidly left open, and headed towards the second. There had been more walkers along the way, Daryl taking down almost all of them before Beth could even see they were in their path.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw the gruesome sight before her. There were dozens pushing up against the fence, rotten skin slipping through and sliding easily off of their bones. Beth was reminded of the last few weeks at the prison. "Daryl?" She asked meekly, and he spun around to her with wide eyes.

"We have to draw them off. Go get the others." Just as he spoke, the fence began to bend. Metal creaking was splitting the air, and all of their dead eyes were on them. It reminded Beth of being in a fish market when all of those dull, lifeless eyes were on her and she felt an overwhelming amount of sympathy. Except, then, the fish weren't trying to kill her. Guess that plays a big part.

Then again, they were trying to climb over that fence like a wave. Everything was becoming too comparative.

She stepped beside him. "There isn't any time!"

Daryl put his hand in front of her chest, stopping her from going any further. "You ain't doin' this."

"Look!" She yelled, pointing to where the fence had almost buckled beneath the weight. "There isn't any time for you to be savin' me! We draw them off, then circle around and come back, alright?" When he didn't answer right away, Beth grabbed the hand that was over her chest. "Don't go soft on me now, Dixon. C'mon!"

He watched her take off toward the gate, banging her hands along the fence as she ran. He shook his head in defeat, and mimicked her movements. "C'mon you bastards!" He bellowed, and Beth let out some high pitch yells. He hoped the others were hearing them and would come out when they needed to and pick up the fence, but he wasn't too sure with that group. Not anymore.

They got to the gate, and Beth slipped through first, taking off in a brisk run as he closed it and followed after. Neither of them realized that the hoard against the gate wasn't the only one. Their was a large amount of them coming in through the woods still, and Beth ran into the worst of them. A woman who had died wearing her green monkey pajamas wrapped her hand that now only have three fingers around Beth's wrist.

She attempted to rip it away, but the dead had a strength that matched the hulk. Her hand that was being pinned held her knife, and as she tried to grab for it, the walker was gnashing her teeth violently at Beth's skin.

She felt the old deteriorating flesh fling from the walker's mouth and land on her hand, and Beth was shaking her hand and thrashing as it's mouth got even closer. It was no use, the walker was coming in closer and the rest were closing in around her. She felt panicked, looking around in every direction as the damn things came at her without a hint of mercy.

Then, the grip was released, flinging her to the ground from the lack of pressure. She tilted her head back, seeing an upside down version of Daryl Dixon stepping towards her and taking out another knife, grunting as he shoved his knife into anything that came near him. He was spinning and thrusting, successfully raising the amount of admiration Beth Greene had found herself feeling for the man. After a few moments, she pulled herself from her daze and stood up. They both got through the hoard and out of immediate danger, then took off sprinting once more.

They still screamed, his mostly being profanities. Most of the walkers were following them now, a few still lingering on the bent fence.

"Beth, head towards the sun!" He screamed, and she looked over her shoulder to make sure he was still close.

She ran as fast as he could, but after a good half hour, her breathing was getting the best of her. The sun was going down quickly, and she wasn't sure she could keep up this charade of health. She hadn't been eating much, they both knew that, and she hadn't gotten decent sleep except for that one night when he had came with her to her tent. "Daryl..." She finally breathed out.

He caught up to her easily, wrapping his arm around her delicate waist as she began to slump. "You can do it, Beth. Just a lil' bit further." His voice was filled with encouragement, and she even perked up a little bit for a few more hundred yards. But soon, she was tripping and her chest was pulling.

Fingers digging into her waist, Beth began to see black splotches. "I can't." She rasped.

"You can." He corrected, pulling her along further, but they both knew she was just running on fumes now. "Fuck. Remind me to force feed you." He told her, then stopped to look around desperately. The moans could still be heard, but they were a ways off. If they were quiet, the herd would pass right by them.

He spotted a little bit of pavement, and bent down, scooping her up in his arms. The sky was a maroon color, the sun fading into the distance. He knew they were a several miles from the camp, and it was an unspoken agreement that they would need to sleep somewhere else. Her eyes were drooping, and he began to fear that he had overexerted her.

"Hey, remember when we saw that dog?" Daryl asked, trying to think of anything to keep her awake. "Beth." He tried again, but she said nothing. He looked down, gently slapping her cheeks. "Beth, stay with me." She mumbled a little bit in response. "Remember that damn dog that nearly got us killed?"

Beth nodded. "The blind one?"

He laughed a little breathlessly, carrying her as quickly as he could to the now slightly visible house. "That's the one. Would you have wanted to keep him?"

"Of course. I love dogs." Beth was getting a bit pale, and he shook her. "Don't gotta be so rough."

He blushed lightly, "Sure I do. Else you gonna pass out on me and make me drag ya everywhere." Finally, they reached the front of the house. It was dilapidated, the wood looking droopy and grayish, but it was still standing and wasn't falling apart. He reached for the door, finding it was locked. He shoved it, and it still stood. That was a good sign. The wood was sturdy.

He cautiously moved Beth out of the way, lifting his hand. "You aren't gonna punch the glass out, are you?" Her voice coming out smaller than before, but still filled with humor and amazement.

"That's exactly what I'm bout to do." He responded, looking down at her. She pushed away from him gently, and he had a feeling she would have been soft about it even if she wasn't weak. He reluctantly sat her down on the porch, and watched as she shed his jacket. "Jesus girl, it's freezin' out here. Put that back on."

Beth ignored him, grabbing his right hand and wrapping the jacket around his knuckles. He looked up at her and saw that she was looking right back at him. "Well, what are you waitin' for?"

She was protecting him? After everything, she was the one protecting him? He almost laughed at the irony. Still, he was thankful, and possibly even flustered. She cared so much and he didn't know how one went about handling that. So, instead he set his mind to busting the glass and was more than glad to find that it didn't hurt a bit.

The groaning of the dead was getting louder, and he threw his arm in the window, messing with the knob until it finally clicked and he opened the door, pulling Beth in with him. He shut it quietly, locking the door and looking through the dim house for something to block the opening with.

Beth followed him up the stairs, and they found three bedrooms. She saw some photos on the wall of the first room, a girl who was a bit younger than her in almost all of them. She was pretty and had braces, and it made Beth stop to just look at her things. Had she died? Was she bit?

Daryl saw the way her eyes were beginning to shine with tears, and he quickly reached around her, pushing the picture frame down and out of her hands. She turned, looking up at him, and he held his gaze. "If you know somethin's gonna make you cry, I don't want you lookin' at it." He told her, half chastising and half pleading. "Don't need to shed your tears for no good reason." He gruffly mumbled, walking away to lift the tussled covers on the bed. "Come'ere and help me get the frame downstairs. We can put it in front of the door."

She shuffled to him, helping him toss the mattress and blanket off and pick it up. They carried it down, him going first down the stairs.

…

They had found the fire place, and Daryl said they could light a fire, but it had to remain small or else it might attract some walkers. They now sat before it, a queen sized bed laid out on the floorboards and separate covers wrapped around them each. Sure, they could have laid out different beds, but Daryl knew Beth felt comfortable around him for whatever reason.

"You think they got any food here?" Beth asked, and almost directly after, her stomach rumbled. Daryl reached beside him, picking up a can of peaches. "Where'd you get these?!"

He pulled out his knife, stabbing into the can lid. "Found it earlier when you were grabbin' the blankets. Thought you could use it." He handed the can over to her after he had pried it open enough to where she could eat all of it's contents with ease. "And you're gonna eat every last bit of it."

Beth smiled, taking the can from his, her fingers brushing against his own. She looked up at him and her smile grew wider. "You really are too good to me." She said, lifting the can and swallowing down some of the juice.

His first instinct was to dismiss her thought, yet he just didn't see the reasoning anymore. At least not here. When they were alone, he forgot why he was trying to hide from her. So, instead, he reached up, wiping away a bit of juice that had dripped down her chin. She watched him put the very finger in his mouth, licking it clean and keeping his heated gaze on her own. His finger was shining in the light of the fire, and she lifted the can again, this time letting some of the juice drip down slightly passed her lips, just to see what he did.

Daryl chuckled deeply, and Beth felt something warm pool in her stomach. "I see what you're tryna do." She feigned innocence, but her eyes gave her away. He watched her knowingly, but still reached up, removing the juice from her skin.

God, she didn't mean to. Had never been one for seducing and all of that jazz, but when he pulled his finger back a little and stuck the finger into his mouth again, she let out a moan that was nothing but feral. Her hand clasped over his lips, eyes wide in embarrassment. It was moments like this that she knew he thought of her like a kid, and it tore her up inside.

The noise had been heard by him, and he couldn't look away. Did she just... Moan? Because of him? He licked his lips, pulling his legs in a little tighter. The heat of the fire was on his face, but he saw the way she tugged the cover up, and no way in hell was he going to pass up the chance that the universe was offering him right now. "You can come on over here, y'know. If you want." He said, acting as if it was something he did for just anyone.

Her fingers went through her hair nervously, and she hesitated for a moment before scooting into where he now held the covers open for her. He was warm, and she didn't know how. He was wearing the least amount of clothing between the two now that Beth had the jacket back on.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Beth decided she wasn't getting any warmth from him. She was moving around, wriggling like something was biting her. "You got ants in your pants or somethin'?" Daryl asked, making her laugh.

"Just tryna get warm." Was her response before she ultimately lifted forward out of his covers. He thought she was going to leave him for her own blanket and couldn't keep the look of disappointment from his face, until he saw her removing the jacket. His eyebrows lifted in confusion. If she was trying to get warm, why remove the thing that was specifically designed to keep you warm?

She laid the material beside her, then leaned back into his covers, which he wrapped around her shoulder for her. They were skin to skin now, and Daryl understood why she removed the jacket. The body heat that was created between both of them would have challenged a furnace.

"You think they're worried about us?" Beth asked from beside him, and he could hear her yawn almost directly afterward.

Daryl watched the fire before them. "Yeah." Was all he could manage.

"You think they could manage without us?" Her voice was smaller now, and he knew she was getting more and more tired.

"Yeah." He responded instantly. Daryl wasn't sure what she was getting at, but he wanted to know. "Why?"

Beth snuggled in closer to him, one of her hands snaking in beneath his arm and pulling him to her like her favorite pillow. "I was wondering what it would be like if we just didn't go back." He watched her eyes flutter, making his heart do the same. "What it would be like if it was just you and me against the world."

"Would you want that?" He whispered to her for no good reason at all other than not being able to ask it any louder. An irrational fear that if he asked too loud, some outside force would hear it and come bursting in to ruin the moment.

He saw a smile overcome her, and she looked up at this man who had gone through so much trouble to find her. How he could be oblivious to his meaning in this world was beyond her. "Yeah." She responded, the smile falling from her while she watched him watching her.

They sat there in their own heat, eyes sliding between staring at the others lips and anything else. Beth's small little fingers gripped just a bit tighter on his arm before she was lifting up, pressing soft lips to his.

A door slamming a few rooms away tore him from his dream, ripping apart any feeling other than alertness. He groggily rolled over, seeing Beth wrapped up in her own blanket a few feet away. He hated to do it, but footsteps were entering the house. "Beth." He whispered, reaching out to shake her. She moved around in the covers, then looked up at him.

By the time she awoke, he was up, grabbing his knife and yanking her up. His jacket clung to her, making most of her body invisible to the human eye, including his own.

"'Been eye'in this house for a few days. Had to wait til' the damn biters cleared up." Someone with a similar southern accent said, each word giving them reason to believe he was coming closer. Daryl yanked Beth against him, turning and pinning her against the wall, thankful the fire had went out at some point during the night.

"You smell smoke?" Someone else asked, stepping through the door and into the room that they were in. Daryl had Beth behind an old rickety couch now, pushing her up in the corner of the room.

The scent of fresh ash was still in the area, and Daryl cursed under his breath. "There someone in here?" One of the men called out. Daryl had his back to the men, his face mere inches from Beth's, eye to eye and letting her know that they didn't need to go answering, as if she didn't already guess that much.

"We ain't gonna hurt ya'." Another called out, stepping further into the room. "Sheets aren't musty. They must'a been in here real recently. Randy, check the upstairs will ya'? If you find someone, bring 'em down here. Maybe they can come on back with us." Daryl contemplated for a moment. Of course they could have just been saying that to draw anyone out, but what were the chances him and Beth weren't going to be found? The guy said it himself that he had his eyes on this place. They more than likely would be looting it in the light, which was only an hour or two away.

"Stay here." Daryl murmured, making Beth shaking her head quickly and take a firm grip on his shirt. He looked down, prying her hand off and standing up before she could do it again. He held his hands up, scooting behind the couch.

The men lifted their guns, aiming straight at Daryl. Each one had their own matching jackets, leading him to infer they were some sort of biker gang. Not sure why those were relevant anymore, but he wasn't exactly in a position to question it.

"What's yer' name, son?" An older man asked, his facial hair a ghastly white. Couldn't have been younger than sixty.

Daryl took a few steps forward so that their lights wouldn't be shining on where Beth was. "Daryl."

The man lowered his gun slightly, taking a look at the specimen who had just come out completely covered in brown guts. "What were yer' intentions in comin' out from back there, Daryl? You stupid or just hopeful?"

"Ain't got much hope left. Sure as hell ain't stupid, though." He slowly began to allow his hands to descend, feeling a bit of the hostility lessening. The group threw him into a loop of his past. They looked like something Merle would have gotten caught up in, and honestly he wouldn't have been surprised if they knew his brother.

"You got anyone else with ya'?" Another man asked, this one much younger, probably early thirties. He looked well groomed and pretty well put together. "You don't have to tell us, but I recommend you do. We have a group and if you answer a few questions correctly, you and whoever else can come on down and we can see 'bout getting' you situated."

Daryl was well aware of Beth back there, but he still wasn't sure he could trust these guys. "Nah, it's just me."

The man with the white beard nodded, finally putting his weapon all the way down. "I'm Augustine." He pointed to the younger guy, "This here's Patch, Randy's upstairs and Jeff and Charlie are searchin' the rest of the house." Daryl nodded, and the man looked around the disastrous room. "You got somewhere y'need to be, son?"

"I've got a camp a ways out." He responded vaguely, and the guy chuckled at Daryl's suspicious behavior.

"Come on, we can give ya' a ride. Y'know how to ride a bike?" Augustine asked as more men came into the room after hearing the conversation. It was one hell of a question. Daryl of all people sure as shit knew how to ride one, but he knew right now wasn't the time for bragging.

"Yea." He responded, then turned back. All of the men looked at him with raised brows, and a few even began to aim their guns once more. "C'mon out." Daryl called, and all of the men watched at the pretty little blond came out from behind the couch.

She looked fierce as she stood, but the closer she got to Daryl, the more safe and like herself she felt. By the time she was next to him, she was offering all of the men bright smiles. "I'm Beth."

No one had asked, but they all accepted the words anyway. "Thought you said you didn't have no one else?" Patch questioned as he snatched up a bag from the floor.

"Thought you said I didn't have to tell you." Daryl retorted, earning a look of approval from Patch and Augustine.

"Fair 'nuff." Patch returned with a grin. His eyes slid to Beth then, and his smile widened. "Damn, you're skin and bones. Can we get you somethin' ta eat?" He asked. Daryl looked at Beth and saw what he meant. She was very lean, but who wasn't these days? Still, he couldn't pass up an opportunity to get something in her stomach, so he wrapped his hand around her arm and walked with her out of the home.

"Yes, please." Beth answered, and Patch handed an open can over to Beth, which Daryl looked at wearily before reluctantly allowing her to have. They stepped into the light of an almost-sunrise, the wind making Beth's hair flap against the side of her cheek.

"You can ride the Harley over there. Jeff's gotta man the truck with the supplies anyway." Augustine said, pointing to a large motorcycle parked near a thin dirt road. "You lead the way and we'll make sure ya get there safely."

Daryl knew it would be better if him and Beth just went, but they were being kind and offering them a bike to ride, and shit... It had been so long since he rode his bike. "Thank you." Beth called to them, eating some oranges from the can that Patch had given her. Daryl slid onto the bike with ease, even if it was incredibly different from his own.

He turned to Beth who was just looking at the beast of a machine. "Get on." He instructed, and she hesitantly took a step forward before hooking her leg over it and pressing her body against his. Her arms wove around his waist, letting her feel the tensing of every one of his muscles. He was reminded of his dream, but knew this was neither the time nor place to think about that.

"Left or right?" Patch asked after revving his engine and driving up beside them.

Daryl looked at the sun. "Right." he responded, then pulled the throttle and let Beth cling onto him as she was jerked back. He was amused by how afraid she appeared to be, gripping his shirt and pulling him even closer to her as if he was honestly going to allow her to go flying off of the back.

They rode for a few minutes then, Beth holding on for dear life and Daryl basking in being able to allow her to. He knew it was just a matter of time before one of these men asked them what the extent of their relationship was, but they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

Daryl turned on the familiar road that lead to where the park was, and Beth straightened up behind him. His body became rigid, and it wasn't long before she had become the same. Their motorcycle came to a stop, and Beth flung herself off before falling to her knees on the ground. Her fingernails gripped the dirt, and Beth just looked in front of her without a single emotion on her pretty little face.

Daryl on the other hand got off and slung his knife to the Earth like he could kill it or something, kicking up some dust and yelling out, "Fuck!" As he paced beside Beth.

The bikers were stopped a few yards behind them, all of their faces showing sympathy or pity towards the two.

"Beth, we gotta go." Daryl said, shadowing his words from a few weeks prior. Beth didn't even respond to him in the slightest, and he knelt down beside her, placing his hands on her delicate shoulder. She jumped, turning around and finally acknowledging what had happened. She started off shaking her head, but soon she was convulsing, sobs wracking her body as she leaned into Daryl.

His hands very, very slowly began to pursue a path around her waist, eventually circling her and pulling her fully against him. "We have to leave." He insisted, pulling her up from the ground and dragging her to the bike.

When her head was against his shoulder, he still felt her body trembling. "Oh god, Daryl." she cried, and he just let his hand lay on her thigh before he realized that wasn't helping and was only serving to make her uncomfortable, so he pulled back and started the bike. Beth missed the affection the second he pulled away.

"Follow us," Augustine said, and the bikers revved their engines and took off down the road, Beth and Daryl following behind. As they drove off, the park building was in the distance. The fences around the place were knocked down in random parts and walkers filled the fields all around them. They were walking through busted down doors and some were spread out on the ground, filling themselves up with people who had once been considered friends. The group had spread once again, and this time, not everyone was going to make it back.

No, this time, death was going to come knocking, but he wasn't waiting for them to answer the door.

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